Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms up for more public criticism, evident in Nina Andreyeva's critical letter in a March edition of "Sovetskaya Rossiya". Gorbachev acknowledged that his liberalising policies of "glasnost" and "perestroika" owed a great deal to Alexander Dubček's "Socialism with a human face". Indeed, when one reporter asked him what was the difference between his policies and the Prague Spring, Gorbachev replied, "Nineteen years". The Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical economic reform of the early Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy, the law permitted private ownership of
Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union Soviet Union. Frustrated by the 'old guard's resistance to his attempts to liberalise, Gorbachev changed tack and embarked upon a set of constitutional changes to try and separate party and state, and thereby isolate his conservative opponents. Detailed proposals for the new Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union were published for public consultation on 2 October 1988, and to enable the creation of the new legislature the Supreme Soviet, during its 29 November to 1 December 1988 session, implemented the amendments to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, enacted a law on electoral reform, and set the date of the