Back in the U.S.S.S.?

"What's in my name to you? It will wither out, like a sad sound." That line from Pushkin might describe how some members of the legislature of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics feel about . . . well, about the name Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Supreme Soviet is debating whether the country ought to get a new name once the proposed treaty of confederation among the 15 constituent republics of the U.S.S.R. is approved. Three suggestions: Union of Sovereign Socialist States (U.S.S.S.), put forth by none other than Mikhail Gorbachev; Union of Euro-Asian Republics, a coinage of the late Andrei Sakharov; and Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics, a nomination from the floor. That, of course, would retain both the word Soviet and the initials U.S.S.R. (or, in the Russian language and Cyrillic alphabet, C.C.C.P.). If none of them are judged suitable, there is always the Union of Squabbling Socialist Republics . . .