Our government declared that it is conducting some kind of great reforms. In reality, no real reforms were begun and no one at any point has declared a coherent programme.

The speaker contrasts official rhetoric about “great reforms” with an absence of concrete action and, crucially, an absence of an articulated plan. The complaint is not merely that reforms are slow, but that they are performative—announced to create an impression of progress—while the state avoids committing itself to a clear, accountable programme. The second sentence sharpens the critique: without a coherent programme, even well-intentioned changes become improvisation, and citizens cannot evaluate goals, methods, or results. In Solzhenitsyn’s broader political thought, such language typically signals distrust of bureaucratic self-justification and a demand for moral and institutional clarity rather than slogans.