The Strange Death of Soviet Communism: A Postscript

Couverture
Nikolas K. Gvosdev
Transaction Publishers - 248 pages
1 Commentaire

The collapse of communism marked the close of an era of world history. What took place in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1991, in the eyes of its proponents, constituted a "great experiment" in the application of new modes of organization to social life, the largest such experiment in history. The Strange Death of Soviet Communism, which first appeared as a special issue of The National Interest, brings together leading scholars of Soviet history, who show why the experiment failed and how it has destroyed the laboratory of socialist utopias.

Francis Fukuyama considers the role of long-term social and intellectual modernization while Vladimir Kontorovich examines the related factor of economic stagnation. Myron Rush then analyzes the accidental and precedent-breaking accession and leadership of Gorbachev. Charles Fairbanks looks at the more general factors of change and rigidity within communist political culture. Chapters by Peter Reddaway and Stephen Sestanovich conclude this section by assessing respectively the role of internal pressure from Soviet citizens and external pressure from the West. The next chapters deal with why the West was surprised by the communist collapse. This involves a critique of Western Sovietology both for its scholarly failures and its ideological prejudices. Here, Peter Rutland and William Odom deal with social science interpretations of the Soviet Union while Robert Conquest and Richard Pipes reflect on historians' readings of Soviet history. Martin Malia then offers a comparative assessment of both. In the third section Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer discuss communism in relation to the intellectuals in the West.

Although the authors are united in their anti-communist stance, the volume is diverse in its perspectives and assessments of Soviet communism. Taken together, these contributions show that the debate on the legacy of communism and a subsequent rethinking of modern history is just beginning. The Strange Death of Soviet Communism will be of interest to historians, political scientists, Slavic studies specialists, and sociologists.

Nikolas K. Gvosdev is editor of The National Interest and a senior fellow in strategic studies at The Nixon Center. He is a frequent commentator on international relations and U.S. foreign policy. He is also author of six books including Russia in The National Interest which is available from Transaction Publishers.

 

Avis des internautes - Rédiger un commentaire

Aucun commentaire n'a été trouvé aux emplacements habituels.

Table des matières

II
3
III
9
IV
21
V
31
VI
45
VII
61
VIII
77
IX
91
XII
137
XIII
151
XIV
173
XV
183
XVI
191
XVII
199
XVIII
213
XIX
235

X
109
XI
125

Autres éditions - Tout afficher

Expressions et termes fréquents

Fréquemment cités

Page 188 - Cold War" is over, the real cold war has begun. We are far less prepared for this cold war, far more vulnerable to our enemy, than was the...
Page 32 - But the United States has it in its power to increase enormously the strains under which Soviet policy must operate, to force upon the Kremlin a far greater degree of moderation and circumspection than it has had to observe in recent years, and in this way to promote tendencies which must eventually find their outlet in either the break-up or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power.
Page 188 - So far from having ended, my cold war has increased in intensity, as sector after sector of American life has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos. . . . Now that the other 'Cold War' is over, the real cold war has begun.
Page 32 - States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.
Page 31 - But I tell you: Interfere more and more. Interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere.
Page 132 - The Soviet economy is the subject of a considerable volume of scholarly work which occupies numerous study centres in Europe and the United States and which provides material for a vast literature and various academic journals. But those born in the Soviet Union or those who approach Soviet society through history, literature, travel or through listening to what the emigres have to say, find that they cannot recognize what the economists describe. There seems to be an unbridgeable gap between this...
Page 126 - Strong must have been the faith and resolute the will of the men who, in the interest of what seemed to them the public good, could take so momentous a decision.
Page 59 - prophesy" or predict it. Any prediction is extrascientific prophecy that attempts to do more than to diagnose observable tendencies and to state what results would be, if these • American Economic Review. Vol. XL (May, 1950). By permission. tendencies should work themselves out according to their logic.
Page 240 - This is a revolution that no power will control — because biopower and communism, cooperation and revolution remain together, in love, simplicity, and also innocence. This is the irrepressible lightness and joy of being communist.
Page 236 - Almost all the prophecies of Marx and his followers have already proved to be false, but this does not disturb the spiritual certainty of the faithful, any more than it did in the case of chiliastic sects: for it is a certainty not based on any empirical premises or supposed 'historical laws', but simply on the psychological need for certainty.

Informations bibliographiques