Perestroika Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by Yuliya Yurchuk and +1
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- Ukraine, Perestroika, School Textbooks, History textbooks

This case study analyzes the demographic shifts that resulted from the development of uranium and hydrocarbon extraction industries in Western Kazakhstan in the 1960s–1980s and the serious social tensions that ensued. Contrary to the promise of national emancipation of the local population (Kazakhs) through economic development as the pinnacle of Soviet nationality policy, the economic authorities in Moscow continued to prioritize industrialization over indigenization. They opted to import a large labor force from the Slavic and Caucasian republics of the USSR rather than training an indigenous proletariat. This policy escalated socioeconomic frustrations of the Kazakh population that eventually erupted in interethnic strife amid the general rise of nationalism in 1989. Violent labor conflicts persist in the region, now much more ethnically homogeneous, up to the present, which demonstrates that the Soviet-era conflict was a result not just of interethnic animosity but the contradictory nature of the Soviet project in general.

- by Stefan Guth
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- Economic History, Soviet History, Postcolonial Studies, Transnational History

Este trabalho se intitula A revista Veja e o bloco soviético - do Império do Mal ao fracasso do comunismo: 1985-1991, por cobrir o período cronológico recortado de suas páginas e por identificar o percurso que o anticomunismo declarado por seu editorial traçou dentro desse mesmo espaço de tempo. A União Soviética e seus satélites europeus orientais representavam uma poderosa ameaça. Uma superpotência militar agressiva e expansionista, apoiada em uma base material que não poderia ser considerada a de uma superpotência econômica, uma vez que não se destacava decididamente das da Europa Ocidental e Japão. Mas que ainda assim era a segunda economia do mundo. Ao fim do período essa ameaça não era mais perceptível. Construiu-se o discurso de que o comunismo foi um fracasso político, econômico e social desde seus primórdios. O que contrariava suas próprias afirmações de seis anos atrás, rapidamente apagadas da memória. Do auge territorial do sistema do socialismo real e das nações de orientação socialista (provavelmente 1983 e a crise em Granada) ao colapso do próprio conceito político de Europa Oriental e de Segundo Mundo, oito anos depois, o anticomunismo e a imagem feita por este da experiência socialista, passou por uma revisão total, da qual Veja é testemunha engajada. Essas alterações discursivas, se orientadas e inspiradas por políticas externas e intelectuais em boa medida estrangeiros, possuíam como alvo a formação de opinião dos grupos leitores cativos da revista, e na formação de uma teia de argumentos e imagens discursivas que poderiam ser facilmente replicados, no rádio, telejornal, jornal impresso e outras revistas, alimentando um extrato comum de repúdio à União Soviética e a todo adversário político e econômico interno que pudesse ser associado de alguma forma – mesmo a mais enganosa – aos interesses, métodos ou princípios pertencentes (ao menos no imaginário anticomunista) ao universo dos regimes socialistas. Aqui tentamos traçar essa mudança discursiva e como ela era objeto de uma tentativa de enquadramento na situação político-econômica no Brasil.

- by Moisés Wagner Franciscon
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- History, Cultural History, Eastern Europe, Soviet History

By 1985 numerous problems faced the USSR. Corruption was commonplace threatening social cohesion, economic progress, and popular support for the party. Economic growth began to stagnate since the 1960s, with key sectors such as agriculture and mining being at a near-collapse, affecting the accessibility of consumer goods and lowering the standards of living. This was made worse by a massive military budget as high as 20% of the GDP, preventing funding for other key industries (Kuznetsov, 1997, p.267). Political apathy reached new heights, with little popular support for the dogmas of socialist principles. The Soviet-Afghan war, being waged at a huge cost of resources and manpower, enraged the population with the unwillingness of the elites to change their position (Dockrill, 2005). The leadership was corrupt, and made up of hard-line conservatives, concerned only with preserving the status quo. The average age of high-ranking party officials was 70 (Smith, 2005, p.9). In 1985, following the deaths of his three predecessors within three years, 54-year-old Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), where he immediately sought to reform the Soviet Union’s political and economic system after a decade of stagnation. In appointing a relatively young reformer to the rank of General Secretary, the Politburo acknowledged the urgency to revive the USSR, and moved to introducing a series of reforms to stimulate the USSR politically, economically and socially. Within these changes, radical shifts in foreign policy were carried out with the purpose of establishing beneficial external conditions for internal reform (Bisley, 2004). Yet, by 1991 the USSR was no more, instead split into 15 newly independent republics. There have been many debates over the years as to why the Soviet Union collapsed. This essay will seek to explain that causality is inappropriate in determining which overarching factor led to the Soviet Union’s disintegration, as all factors combined, directly or indirectly, contributed to the downfall of the Soviet empire. Nevertheless, this essay believes that while the declining economy and rising ethnic tensions may have acted as a catalyst, the final tipping point was Gorbachev’s reforms which ultimately led to the dissolution of the state.

- by George Polglase-Korostelev
- •
- History of the USSR, Soviet Union (History), Perestroika, Soviet Union

During the glasnost period when many forgotten biographies were rediscovered and rewritten, one of the most bizarre finds was the Soviet-American inventor and pioneer of electr(on)ic music, Lev Sergeevich Termen (aka Léon Theremin, 1896-1993). Termen, “the secret link between sci-fi films, the Beach Boys, and Carnegie Hall,” whose “electronic musical instrument took the world by storm in the 1920s and '30s” — several decades before the rise of electronic popular music — had been forgotten for 50 years in the East and West.

- by Natascha Drubek
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- Antennas, Film Music And Sound, Radio, Electronic Music
- by Linor Goralik
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- History of Dress, History of the USSR, Dress and identity, DIY culture
- by Anatoly Pinsky
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- Russian Studies, Soviet Regime, Soviet History, Subjectivities

Біловезька угода 8 грудня 1991 року. Точка неповернення. Фотолітопис Науковий редактор Р.Грицьків. Київ, 2017. 368 с., іл.
У виданні на основі широкої бази фото-документальних матеріалів висвітлено політичні, національні та соціальні процеси 1985-1991 рр. в СРСР. Відображено передумови та розпад Радянського Союзу, виникнення незалежних держав та підписання Біловезької угоди.

- by Роман Грицьків
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- History of the USSR, Ukraine (History), Perestroika, Russia/USSR
- by Igor Casu
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- Romanian History, Romanian Studies, Politics of Moldova, History of Moldova

1917 de Çarlık Rusya rejime karşı işçi sendikalarında başlayan başkaldırı tüm ülkeyi içine alan bir yangın olacaktı.Bu baş kaldırının sloganı ‘EKMEK ,BARIŞ , ÖZGÜRLÜK’ dü , bu kadar etkili olmasının nedeni ise yıllardır Çarlık Rejiminde ezilen kısıtlanan halka yeni sosyalist devrimcilerin verdiği vaatlerdi. Vladimir İlyiç Ulyanov bilinen adıyla Lenin Bu hareketi başındaki isimdi.İşçi sınıfın yükselişi ve marksizm üzerine kurulan yeni sosyalist devlet çok geçmeden dünya siyasetini büyük aktörleri arasına girdi.
Kuruluşundan sonraki yıllarda kapalı ekonomik sistemi , yürüttüğü sıkı tarım , sanayi ,eğitim politikaları ve baskıcı komünist rejimin yardımıyla büyük bir güç olmuştur. Ama esas süper güç oluşu ikinci dünya savaşından sonra döneme yani bilinen adıyla’’Soğuk Savaş’’ dönemine tekabül etmektedir. Uzay programları ve nükleer silahlanma yarışına girişen Sovyet Sosyalist Cumhuriyeti Birliği , iki kutuplu dünya sistemi olarak adlandırılan güç dengesinin Doğu Bloku’nu temsil ediyordu.
Tabiki bu durum çok büyük ekonomik sorumluluklar yüklüyor ve çok fazla iktisadi yük teşkil ediyor. Giderek artan ekonomik yükümlülükler SSCB yi zor duruma sokuyor ve sık boğaz halkın üstündeki ekonomik siyasal baskıları artıyordu.Zaten hali hazırda çok uluslu olan ve bu uluslara karşı asimilasyona kadar varan sıkıntılı politikalar yürüten SSCB,bu ulusları bayrağı altında tutmakta zamanla dahada çok zorlanıyordu.
İşte böyle bir ortamda yönetime gelen Mihail Gorbaçov tüm bunlarla başetmek için hem dış politikada hemde iç politikada yeniden yapılandırmaya gitmiştir. Dış ilişkilerdeki uzlaşmacı tavrı ve silahsızlanma çabalarının tek amacı ekonomiktir.Ve Rus halkı tarafından destek görmemişdi. İç politikadaki Perestroika ve Glastnot politikarını ortaya atarak ekonomik reformlar yaparak ve özgürlük ortamı yaratarak sakinleştirmeyi amaçlıyordu. Ama işler planladığı gibi gitmedi. Nitekim kendisinin istifası ve SSCB’nin yıkılmasını şu sözleriyle tarihe not düştü.
‘’ Görevimi kaygı içinde ama umutla bırakıyorum. Herkese iyi şanslar diliyorum. ‘’

- by Nuri KUZU
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- Soviet Union (History), Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev, Glasnost

The article focuses on an episode in Lotman's biography when he tried (probably the first and the last time in his life) to apply his own theory of semiosphere to current political events. When perestroika started in the Baltic countries, he used the press as a speaker's platform, where he formulated the importance of multilingualism and multiculturalism for the development of a new national identity of Estonia: in his view, it was to become a sovereign democratic state, a space for a tolerant dialogue between the languages of different cultures. Special attention is paid to those publications in which Lotman published his semiotic and political articles: first and foremost, it is informal press (primarily the Tartu University student newspaper Alma Mater) and official periodicals edited by the Estonian supporters of perestroika (such as the journal Raduga / Vikerkaar [Rainbow]).

- by Nikolay Poselyagin
- •
- Culture in the Soviet Union, Perestroika, Yuri Lotman, Tartu-Moscow School

How did a kremlin, a fortified monastery or a wooden church in Russia become part of the heritage of the entire world? Corinne Geering traces the development of international cooperation in conservation since the 1960s, highlighting the role of experts and sites from the Soviet Union and later the Russian Federation in UNESCO and ICOMOS. Despite the ideological divide, the notion of world heritage gained momentum in the decades following World War II. Divergent interests at the local, national and international levels had to be negotiated when shaping the Soviet and Russian cultural heritage displayed to the world. The socialist discourse of world heritage was re-evaluated during perestroika and re-integrated as UNESCO World Heritage in a new state and international order in the 1990s.

- by Corinne Geering
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- Cultural History, Cultural Policy, Soviet History, Cultural Heritage
- by Juraj Marušiak
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- Eastern European Studies, Soviet History, Post-Soviet Regimes, Communism
- by Mark Beumer
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- American History, Cold War, Communism, History of the USSR

Эта книга - профессиональная биография советского партработника, Александра Анипкина, написанная сыном-социологом. Автор оригинально развивает теорию поколений, рассматривая кризис в КПСС и перестройку как реакцию на отсутствие поколенческого обновления в руководящих структурах партии в 1970-е годы. Особое внимание уделено процессам перестройки, в центре которых находился герой книги в качестве первого секретаря Волгоградского горкома, затем обкома КПСС, члена ЦК КПСС и народного депутата РСФСР 1990-1993 гг.

- by Mikhail Anipkin
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- Soviet History, History of the USSR, Perestroika, collapse of the USSR
- by Karsten Brüggemann
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- Soviet Union (History), History of Estonia, Lithuanian History, Baltic States

The article examines the main historiographical approaches the
disintegration of the Soviet Union.

- by Yurii Latysh
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- Russian Studies, Soviet History, Historiography, Ukrainian Studies

An Examination of the Impact of Gorbachev's Reforms in 1985-90.

- by Vladimir Moss
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- Russian Studies, Russian Politics, Russian Foreign Policy, Russian Orthodoxy
- by Evan Smith
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- History, Eastern Europe, Marxism, British History
- by Igor Casu and +1
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- Soviet History, Romanian History, Cold War and Culture, Cold War

Glasnost und Perestrojka sind internationale Begriffe geworden, seit Michail Gorbatschow nach seiner Ernennung zum Generalsekretär der KPdSU mit radikalen Reformen die Sowjetunion erneuern wollte. Die angestrebte publizistische Offenheit (Glasnost) und der gesellschaftliche wie wirtschaftliche Umbau (Perestrojka) erschütterten das kommunistische Regime jedoch so stark, dass Gorbatschow damit das Ende der Sowjetunion bewirkt hat. Diese letzten aufregenden Jahre der Sowjetunion werden anhand zeitgenössischer Beobachtungen, Artikel und Aufsätze dargestellt.

- by Johannes Grotzky
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- Soviet History, Chernobyl, Stalinism, Perestroika

Il crollo dell’Unione Sovietica e del blocco orientale ha avuto sulla Russia ripercussioni peculiari, diverse da quelle degli altri paesi al di là della cortina. La prospettiva non è stata infatti quella di un ritorno all’unità nazionale o alla democrazia ma la perdita di centralità nell’equilibrio mondiale, prospettiva per di più risucchiata nelle sabbie mobili di una crisi di identità sociale e culturale. Una situazione che l’attuale presidente della Federazione russa, Vladimir Putin, ha saputo sfruttare a suo vantaggio, costruendovi il suo successo.

- by Giovanni Savino and +1
- •
- Post-Soviet Studies, Russian History, Perestroika, Contemporary Russian Society

In May 1986, the Fifth Congress of the Union of Soviet Cinematographers marked a turning point in the relations between artists and political authorities in the USSR, as it seems to concretize the "perestroika" (reconstruction) that Mikhail Gorbachev, the new General Secretary of the Party (CPSU), had just launched. At the delegates’ elections, some members of this Union had already refused to vote for the candidates proposed by the Party. During the Congress, the individuals and structures that directed the Union of Cinematographers were publicly and violently criticized, and it would take some time to understand that, part of this "revolt," had been agreed by the Central Committee of the CPSU. Fresh hopes appeared and, in the next few years, the Union of Cinematographers, with its newly elected direction, was one of the moving forces of the perestroika: it tried to correct past injustices, to seek new economic solutions, and to encourage public debate on painful issues. However, confronted with a growing crisis and with the collapse of the structures and rules that they criticized, but knew, many members of the Cinema Union soon grew distraught. In 1991, the failure of the putsch marked both the end of a failed system and the beginning of something else, very much unknown yet. The Union of Soviet Cinematographers can therefore be seen as one of the motors of the perestroika and a mirror of this period of change, but also as its victim, since it did not survive the end of the Soviet Union.

- by Cécile Vaissié
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- Soviet History, Soviet Film, Soviet Union (History), Soviet Visual Culture

The dissertation thesis discusses public activities, thoughts and the political life of JUDr. Gustáv Husák, CSc. (1913–1991), who was involved in the Czech-Slovak public space for sixty years with a significant footprint even today. The text is based on a thorough research and is chronologically structured, intertwined with thematic areas, however an analytical approach prevails. The first chapter focuses on Husák's youth, the factors that led him to the communist movement, and his early activism. This is followed by a portrayal of the Husák's activities during the Second World War, his role in the resistance, participation in a propaganda trip to the Nazi conquered Ukraine, and his vision of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. His later involvement in the Slovak National Uprising provided the legitimacy of his later political career in the post-war era, when he successfully led the struggle for the communistmonopoly of political power in Czechoslovakia and attempts to present the Communist Party of Slovakia as a national party. Next two chapters show the origins of Slovak bourgeois nationalism and the way Husák was incorporated with in, criminalized and eventually absolved. Further, the difficulties with Husák's return to politics are highlighted, which brought him for the time being to the field of historical science and opposition activities. The public support and activism during the Prague Spring helped Husák to become a vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak government and a leading position in the formation of federalization of Czechoslovakia. Although the image of Husák as a reformer was so strengthened, he remained convinced of the necessity of a communist power monopoly and a strong alliance with the Soviet Union as the guarantor of national independence and post-war socialism. After the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, this with his agility sufficiently convinced Moscow and cemented his position as the leader of the Communist Party for the next two decades. The final chapters present Husák as a skilled tactician and political practitioner who, after tragic death of his second wife, suffered from apathy that accompanied his gradual departure from public life. The text consistently stresses the fundamental interdependence of domestic events and international factors, whilst shedding light on personal relationships between Husák and other major figures. A thematic analysis is framed to a greater extent in connection with the Czech-Slovak relations, in which Husák played a significant role. His background in Slovak nationalism, and identity of a nationally oriented Slovak Communist, punitively criminalised him and still yet earned a large recognition of the Slovak public, who rightly assumed him as the father of the Czech-Slovak federation whose foundation he actually built. However, he always prioritised party discipline over national interest. In this context, we can perceive Gustáv Husák paradoxically both as a destructor and an architect of Slovak statehood upon which the foundation of today's Slovakia is built. In this respect, the intention of the dissertation purposefully transcends the biographical motif.

- by Kurt W . Bassuener, PhD
- •
- Russian Studies, Democratization, Post-Soviet Regimes, Russian Politics

La mayoría de Constituciones del mundo han sido desvirtuadas al punto en que en ellas se legaliza la desigualdad ante la ley al otorgar privilegios a grupos de poder, alejándose de lo que deben ser, un régimen de derecho. Los derechos sociales muchas veces se convierten en privilegios que adquieren categoría constitucional, entrando en conflicto con los derechos individuales. Los derechos humanos se refieren a satisfactores que las personas no pueden conseguir por su cuenta, como la salud, la educación o un nivel de vida determinado. La teoría es que los seres humanos deben tener acceso a ellos sin importar de dónde sale el dinero para pagar las cuentas, muchas veces fuera de las posibilidades del país. Así se cae en el populismo.

- by Pepo Toledo
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- Perestroika, Derechos sociales, Populismo, Derecho Natural

The economic reforms under Gorbachev's perestroika, in Moldova, resurrected some old forms of market, giving rise to a rudimentary "private" sector. The latter relies on a new social contract, which marked a break with the politics of equal wages (especially in the merchant enterprises) and transformed the ancient bureaucratic regime of allocation and distribution of the resources of these enterprises into one taking into account the enterprise's profit. At the same time, in the non-merchant enterprises (such as cultural organizations, hospitals, schools), the bureaucratic form of allocation and distribution of the resources - in other words, the Soviet social contract, based on the politico-administrative hierarchy's competence - remain dominant.
At the same time of the perestroika, the tensions raised by these two models of allocation and distribution of resources gave birth to a new societal cleavage, which was called by the Moldavian academics, experts, or analytics, "private/public cleavage". The originality of this new cleavage occurs from its building not on the tensions between the private and public forms of ownership, but on the coexistence of the two wage regimes under perestroika. So, by an abuse of terminology, the private sector contains the merchant enterprises, and the public sector includes the non-merchant enterprises. This terminology was perpetrated and applied in the same way to the new post-communist realities in Moldova.
Thus, I discuss in this paper the origins and the content of the "private/public cleavage" in Moldova, under perestroika, and I examine the terminological adaptation under the post-communist era.

- by Dorina Rosca
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- Resource Allocation, Perestroika, Economic Reforms, Economy of Moldova

Swedish and Danish researchers recount their experiences in the Caucasus during the final years of the Soviet Union and the period shortly after. More info is available at https://ojs.mau.se/index.php/caucasus/issue/view/117
– The authors of this anthology report on what it was like to travel and do field research on the periphery of the Soviet Empire and the political processes that they witnessed. The authors are political scientist Ib Faurby, cultural geographer Lars Funch Hansen, researcher on minority issues Helen Krag, slavicist Märta-Lisa Magnusson, historian and Iranologist Søren Theisen and general linguist Karina Vamling. Since this period they have all closely followed the develop-ment in the Caucasus region in struggles for independence, wars and ethno-political conflicts.
– The contributions to the anthology are based on material collected during travel and fieldwork in both the South and North Caucasus. In their contributions the authors write about the new movements for independence in the Caucasus and increasing tensions with Moscow, how the Soviet structures at different levels were breaking down and the national cultures became increasingly important. They describe how premodern traditions still play a role, despite Soviet modernization, account for specific cultural features and similarities and also witness deepening ethnic antagonism. Though being a peripheral region of the USSR, the Caucasus played an important role in the gradual disintegration of the union and its collapse in December 1991.
— The contributions are written in Swedish and Danish and are illustrated with original photos taken by the authors during their travel and fieldwork in the South and North Caucasus. In the opening contribution Märta-Lisa Magnusson, based on impressions from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the end of the 1980s, puts the question “The Soviet people, did it exist?”. In his chapter, Ib Faurby adopts a global as well as local perspective: The disintegration of an Empire in a perspective from below. The following chapter by Karina Vamling focuses on the role of language and identity in Georgia: Four years that changed the identity of Georgia. Søren Theisen travelled extensively in Armenia and writes about the Soviet legacy and pre-Soviet traditions in A Little Trip Down Memory Lane. Travels in Armenia before and shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Lars Funch Hansen shares his impressions from Spitak, the Armenian town that was severely hit by an earthquake in 1988: When the mountains wept. Spitak, December 1989. A photo story from a field visit in snow and ice in Armenia on the 1 year anniversary of the earthquake in 1988. In her chapter Forget it if you can Helen Krag approaches silenced aspects of minority issues in the Caucasus. Lars Funch Hansen continues the topic of conflicts in the North Caucasus and focuses on the Prigorodnyj district and the conflict between North Ossetia and Ingushetia: “He is a conflictologist”. Field research in North Caucasus at the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the last chapter How I conquered the North Caucasian stronghold Majkop Karina Vamling illustrates challenges of doing field work in the Soviet period in her research on the structure and status of the Northwest Caucasian Circassian language.

- by Karina Vamling and +1
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- History of the USSR, Soviet Union (History), Georgia, Perestroika

In contrast to most existing literature the author claims that there were palpable ‘rudiments’ of authoritarian socialist Rechtsstaat in some communist countries of East Central Europe in the late 1980s. The first part of the article examines the existing terminology with regard to the functioning of law in communist dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in general. By using the example of communist countries such as Poland and in particular Czechoslovakia, the author strives to show how rule by law was not only an increasingly important ruling instrument in state socialism, but how that gradually changed the nature of the dictatorial regimes. He argues that the late communist leaderships in these countries haphazardly set out towards an authoritarian socialist Rechtsstaat in effort to safe their grip on power by strengthening the socialist normative state. They never arrived at the envisioned optimal stage in this respect, yet they opened a fateful path inside the dictatorships towards the legalist and negotiated revolutions of 1989.

- by Michal Kopecek
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- Czech History, Legal History, Rule of Law, Authoritarianism

Zur Geschichte des Revolutionsmuseums in Litauen während der Sowjetzeit

- by katja makhotina
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- History of Museums, Memory Studies, Lithuanian History, Perestroika
- by Önder Bilal Gelgör
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- Lenin, Perestroika, Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev