When the Soviet President won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, he was hailed nearly everywhere except in his own land, where day-to-day domestic troubles far overshadow foreign policy triumphs.

But despite widespread discontent in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s policies are correct and evern irreversible, said Soviet citizen Alexandre Mansourov.

“You know, two years ago in our country the question on everybody’s mind was whether or not the reforms would last, or whether they would simply die out through resistance or inertia,” said Mansourov, a graduate of Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations, and currently a doctoral candidate in political science at NIU.

“Now, nobody speaks of that possibility, because—despite reservations—it’s commonly believed that there is no way back, and that the course he has chosen was right and continues to be right.”

Mansourov admits that the Soviet’s “irritation” with Gorbachev is because they don’t “see his policies from the outside but feel them from the inside.” Nonetheless, he said the problem the Soviet leader faces is the time it takes to implement his vision, not in the vision itself.

“We should bear in mind that while it’s possible to discard values very quickly, it takes longer to create and establish radically new ones,” Mansourov said. “If these changes were to take place quickly and easily, we’d know they aren’t powerful enough to last.”

Mansourov said he invokes a commonly-held distinction between an optimist and a pessimist when it comes to making decisions about the future of the Soviet Union, but said the country has chances for change and opportunity.