The Dynamics of Soviet Politics

Published by Harvard University Press 1976

The Dynamics of Soviet Politics

Edited by: Paul Cocks , Robert V. Daniels and Nancy Whittier Heer

Volume 76 in the series Russian Research Center Studies

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674594791

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Dynamics of Soviet Politics is the result of reflective and thorough research into the centers of a system whose inner debates are not open to public discussion and review, a system which tolerates no public opposition parties, no prying congressional committees, and no investigative journalists to ferret out secrets. The expert authors offer an inside view of the workings of this closed system a view rarely found elsewhere in discussions of Soviet affairs. Their work, building as it does on the achievements of Soviet studies over the last thirty years, is firmly rooted in established knowledge and covers sufficient new ground to enable future studies of Soviet politics and social practices to move ahead unencumbered by stereotypes, sensationalism, or mystification.

Among the subjects included are: attitudes toward leadership and a general discussion of the uses of political history; the dramatic cycles of officially permitted dissent; the legitimacy of leadership within a system that has no constitutional provision for succession; the gradual adoption of Western-inspired administrative procedures and "systems management"; a study of group competition, and bureaucratic bargaining; Khrushchev's virgin-lands experiment and its subsequent retrenchment; the apolitical values of adolescents; the problems of integrating Central Asia into the Soviet system; a history of peaceful coexistence and its current importance in Soviet foreign policy priorities, and, finally, an overview of Soviet government as an extension of prerevolutionary oligarchy, with an emphasis on adaptation to political change.

Author information

CocksPaul:

Paul Cocks is with the Hoover InstitutionDanielsRobert V.:

Robert V. Daniels is Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Vermont.HeerNancy Whittier:

Nancy Whittier Heer teaches Political Science and has been Provost of Wheaton College.

Reviews

In between these stimulating essays [by Adam Ulam and Zbigniew Brzezinski] we find articles tracing the historical evolution of concepts, fields, and policies...and a second group of articles offering close analyses of narrower aspects of Soviet policy (party membership, Virgin Lands, youth, succession and leadership, and so forth). The essays are generally of superior quality, and this anthology will be of considerable interest and use to both students and scholars.

This substantial volume was written and compiled by former students of the late Merle Fainsod, and is dedicated to his memory. The range of approaches to Soviet politics embodied in this collection do indeed reflect Fainsod's own approach: a combination of eclecticism, common sense, attention to history, assiduous compilation of data, and a willingness to entertain behavioral strategies in certain limited areas where they offer hope of meaningful insights...[This volume contains] examples of the cutting edge of new research.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
PART ONE. Problems and Perspectives
1. Do We Know All There Is to Know about the USSR? ADAM B. ULAM Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
PART TWO. Political Leadership and Power
2. Political Leadership in Soviet Historiography: Cult or Collective? NANCY WHITTIER HEER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
3. Permitted Dissent in the Decade after Stalin: Criticism and Protest in Novy mir, 1953-1964 DINA SPECHLER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
4. Toward a Theory of Soviet Leadership Maintenance TERESA RAKOWSKAHARMSTONE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
5. Office Holding and Elite Status: The Central Committee of the CPSU ROBERT V. DANIELS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
6. The Problem of Succession JOHN H. HODGSON Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
7. Party "Saturation" in the Soviet Union JERRY F. HOUGH Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
PART THREE. The Policy Process: Administration and Control
8. The Scientific-Technical Revolution and the Soviet Administrative Debate ROBERT F. MILLER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
9. The Policy Process and Bureaucratic Politics PAUL COCKS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
10. The Virgin Lands since Khrushchev: Choices and Decisions in Soviet Policy Making RICHARD M. MILLS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
PART FOUR. Political Development and Social Change
11. Socialism and Modernity: Education, Industrialization, and Social Change in the USSR GAIL WARSHOFSKY LAPIDUS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
12. Values and Aspirations of Soviet Youth RUTH W. MOULY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Modernization, Generations, and the Uzbek Soviet Intelligentsia DONALD S. CARLISLE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
14. Modernization and National Policy in Soviet Central Asia: Problems and Prospects GREGORY J. MASSELL Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
PART FIVE. Continuity and Change in Foreign Policy
15. Peaceful Coexistence: From Heresy to Orthodoxy PAUL MARANTZ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
16. Global Power Relationships in the Seventies: The View from the Kremlin ROBERT H. DONALDSON Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
PART SIX. Some Reflections
17. Soviet Politics: From the Future to the Past? ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	417
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	419
RUSSIAN RESEARCH CENTER STUDIES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	428

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Copyright year: 1976
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 427
Keywords: POLITICAL SCIENCE / General; HISTORY / General; Political science -- Decision making.; Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1953-1985.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674594791

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1976
ISBN: 9780674594784