the cpc and the cpsu both had liberal factions and conservative factions. the soviet conservatives were led by ligachov and backed by chebrikov and yazov, who essentially argued that the party should remain in full control, and the economic reform was going too fast, and then Yeltsin as the super liberal. CPC had the Eight elders as the conservatives and Hu yaobang and Zhao ziyang as the liberals.
If Gorbachev had the intelligence of Deng he would have seen the need to slow down and cut the liberals off, and suppress protests if necessary. major economic reforms are always painful for the public and a bad economy always causes all kinds of unrest, but he didn't see that.
