The essays in this volume illustrate the kind of expansionary logic that has characterized Soviet reformist thinking in the social sciences in the 1980s. The themes discussed show the wide-ranging and multidisciplinary nature of reformist currents in the Soviet Union.
Over the past several years observers have become aware of what might be called the "expansionary logic" of the reform debate in the Soviet Union. Punctuated by periods of reaction and retreat, successive phases of reform momentum have brought to the fore ideas and proposals that only months before had been considered too radically unorthodox for prudent discussion. In this account, Murray Yanowitch traces the dynamic evolution of reform thinking and the emergence of liberal and social-democratic schools of thought on several pivotal issues. He shows how the contemporary debate over a recurrent theme - workplace democracy - escalated into demands for democratization of the society and political pluralism, and how similarly time-honoured discussions of the problem of economic inequality took unexpected turns, leading to reconsideration of notions of social justice, attacks on privilege, and, ultimately, demands for destatization and property reform. The cumulative impact of these developments, Yanowitch shows, has not only delegitimated the monopoly of the Communist party but has destroyed the sacral character of Marxism-Leninism itself.
The most agonizing and protracted of all the Soviet reform debates has been the debate over economic reform. This anthology of essays and roundtables from party, professional and literary journals surveys the key issues in the market debate.
Moving from the adoption of the "post-Stalin" Constitution of 1977 through its subsequent implementation under Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko to the radical legal "restructuring" of the Gorbachev years, Robert Sharlet traces the gradual evolution of a nascent constitutionalism in the erstwhile USSR. Sharlet, a noted authority on Soviet law and constitutional development, demonstrates the gradual transformation of law from an instrument of Communist Party rule into the new "rules of the game" for nonauthoritarian political development. In effect, he argues, one of Gorbachev's most durable achievements may be his redefinition of Soviet politics into a legal idiom along with his relocation of policymaking from behind the closed doors of Party conclaves into the more open, emergent arena of constitutional government. In analyzing the politics of law from the Brezhnev era to the rise of Yeltsin, the author takes account of the "war of laws", the symbolic uses of the Soviet constitution, and even the fact that the leaders of the failed coup attempted to justify their seizure of power on constitutional grounds. Constitutionalism has sufficiently suffused Soviet public life, the book concludes, that most of the sovereign republics as successors to the former USSR, have begun designing their futures - to varying degrees - in constitutional forms.
The Soviet Union is a multinational state, with about half of the country's population being ethnically Russian. The advent of glasnost, and moves toward democratization and decentralization has unleashed the expression of national sentiments and interests in the USSR. This collection of Soviet materials surveys the many ramifications of the "nationality question" in the USSR in the 1980s. The topics covered include ideology, state organization, party recruitment, inter-republican economic relations, demographic factors, education, bilingualism, cultural institutions, religious traditions, military service, and disputes over republican prerogatives (in the Baltic) and over territory (the case of Nagorno-Karabakh). Each topical section includes a detailed introduction by the editor. This anthology provides coverage of the past decade, up to and including the current unrest and the impact of the Gorbachev reforms.
The Soviet historical profession is in ferment. For decades it was relegated to the task of obfuscating the past, gilding the status quo and papering over the "blank spots" in Soviet history - events that defied even the most brazen attempts at falsification. Today it is engaged in an often painful process of self-examination. Initially rather timid, the internal discussion was soon propelled by external events - the scuttling of history textbooks, official disclosures of formerly "classified" facts and the explosion of candour in the depictions of the past in memoirs, journalistic writing and fiction. This volume gives voice to the lead actors in the "first phase" of this process - the senior historians, their journalistic "challengers" and those charged with responsiblity for the institutions of research, training and publication in the field of history.
The command system has long pervaded nearly every area of Soviet life. This volume documents the prescriptions and proscriptions that have governed everyday life in the Soviet Union policies that are currently undergoing reexamination and revision. Among the topics covered are voting and party organ
"The complexities and paradoxes of the Bulgarian film industry during the era of Communist rule (1945-1989) are explored.... This influential industry was mobilized for the needs of the state. During its creation and development, cultural institutions and those involved in film production operated within a relatively closed system, based on rewards and punishments imposed by the Communist bureaucratic apparatus. Sub-textual content in films produced in Bulgaria during this period highlights the attitude of the elite towards the regime. Understanding this multifaceted relationship helps explain why so many intellectuals found the film industry to be an attractive field in which to work, and decided to remain loyal to the regime instead of leaving or openly rebelling against it. This work challenges the historiographical perception that the arts in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War were largely unsuccessful vehicles of propaganda and dissent. By using a comparative methodological approach, the cinema arts in the East and West are shown following similar paths despite the Iron Curtain."--Provided by publisher.
This is a selection of papers on Russian literature of the Soviet period presented at the IVth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies in 1990. The ten articles range from the experimental prose and drama of the 1920s to studies of work by younger writers of the 1980s. The articles include analyses of works by individual writers and examinations of general phenomena, for example, village prose or the way Stalin is presented in literature of the glasnost era.