[PDF] The Challenge Of Soviet Power eBook

Author : Vladimir Mau
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 24,92 MB
Release : 2001-02-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0191529117

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This volume provides an challenging and controversial explanation of the recent events in Russia. It examines the causes, processes, and consequences of Russia's recent political development. Drawing on, and criticizing the existing literature, the book also shows how the recent Russian experience casts light on general theories of revolution and comparative political developments. The transformation in Russia is usually compared with transformations in other post-communist countries. The authors argue that the Russian transformation should be explained in the logic of the great revolutions of the past such as the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution. The difficulties and inconsistency of Russian reforms are usually explained as a result of mistakes made by reformers. This book argues, however, that these problems should be considered as a natural consequence of the 'weak state'. In revolution the weakness of state power is inevitable (resulting from social fragmentation, property rights transformation, changes in the interests of different social groups). Hence, the authors argue that most of the transitional problems in Russia were unavoidable. The authors go on to argue that revolutions are usually considered as rapid change made through violence. However, the spontaneous character of change in the situation of a weak state is a much more important feature of any revolution than violence. The book contains unique interviews with four leaders of the Russian transformation - Mikhail Gorbachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Yegor Gaidar, and Gennadii Burbulis - as well as the personal experience of the authors, who were deeply involved in the practical process of Russian transformation.

Author : Edward A. Kolodziej
Publisher : Springer
Page : 549 pages
File Size : 49,61 MB
Release : 1989-06-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 134910146X

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An evaluation of Soviet efforts to penetrate the major regions in the southern hemisphere, concluding that success has been modest and continues to be costly. It is suggested that a world society could emerge based on socio-economic and political competition rather than conflict and arms races.

Author : David Christian
Publisher :
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 33,13 MB
Release : 1994
Category : History
ISBN :

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Revised edition of a book first published in 1986. This edition has been updated and expanded to include new chapters on the Brezhnev era and perestroika and to take into account the dissolution of the Soviet system. The text is well illustrated and is supported by a statistical appendix, an annotated bibliography, a glossary, chronology and an index.

Author : Alexander Shtromas
Publisher : Professors World Peace Academy
Page : 552 pages
File Size : 31,42 MB
Release : 1988
Category : Soviet Union
ISBN :

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This four-volume work analyzes the stability problems in the Soviet system. Volume 1 contains the conflicting views of scholars from America, Europe, and Australia, all of whom predict changes that they believe will soon shape the Soviet future. The interrelated topics of economics and society are discussed in volume 2. Economic difficulties in the USSR are always problems of political power. Gorbachev's economic reforms, if successful, could lead to the creation of a society that is self-sufficient in many respects. That, in turn, would reduce the extent of the state and the power of its apparatus and would undermine Soviet leaders' economic decision making power, on which the political system rests. The ideological and cultural crisis is perhaps the most fundamental and fateful one facing the USSR today. Volume 3--devoted to the many aspects of this crisis--deals with the issues of multinationalism and predicts the collapse of the Soviet system in Russia as unavoidable. Volume 4 consists of 19 analyses of the Soviet future by Sovietologists.

Author : Mark R. Beissinger
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 16,4 MB
Release : 1988
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780674794900

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How does the excessive bureaucratization of central planning affect politics in communist countries? Mark Beissinger suggests an answer through this history of the Soviet Scientific Management movement and its contemporary descendants, raising at the same time broader questions about the political consequences of economic systems. Beissinger traces the rise and decline of administrative strategies throughout Soviet history, focusing on the roles of managerial technique and disciplinary coercion. He argues that over-bureaucratization leads to a succession of national crises of effectiveness, which political leaders use to challenge the power of entrenched elites and to consolidate their rule. It also encourages leaders to resort to radical administrative strategies--technocratic utopias, mass mobilization, and discipline campaigns--and gives rise to a cycling syndrome, as similar problems and solutions reappear over time. Beissinger gives a new perspective and interpretation of Soviet history through the prism of organizational theory. He also provides a comprehensive history of the Soviet rationalization movement from Lenin to Gorbachev that describes the recurring attractions and tensions between politicians and management experts, as well as the reception accorded Western management techniques in the Soviet factory and management-training classroom. Beissinger uses a number of unusual sources: the personal archive of Aleksei Gastev, the foremost Soviet Taylorist of the 1920s; published Soviet archival documents; unpublished Soviet government documents and dissertations on management science and executive training; interviews with Soviet management scientists; and the author's personal observations of managers attending a three-month executive training program in the Soviet Union. Beissinger's skillful handling of this singular material will attract the attention of political scientists, historians, and economists, especially those working in Soviet studies.

Author : James Sherr
Publisher : Springer
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 24,73 MB
Release : 1991-06-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1349120758

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Representing the culmination of an RUSI main theme study, "Soviet Power and Prospects", this volume is based on the Institute's proposition that military power exerts a profound influence on the course of world politics and that such power cannot be divorced from its social and political context.