Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich, (19 Dec. 1906–10 Nov. 1982), Order of Victory; Hero of the Soviet Union (two awards); five Orders of Lenin; two Orders of the Red Banner; Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (2nd cl.); Order of the Patriotic War (1st cl.); two Orders of the October Revolution; Order of the Red Star; Hero of Socialist Labour; Chairman of the Presidium, Supreme Soviet of USSR, since 1977 (President, 1960–64); General Secretary (formerly First Secretary) of the Central Committee, CPSU, since 1964

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
General Secretary

scholarly journals The Public Politics of Aleksandr Nikolaevich Yakovlev, 1983-1989, Jonathan Harris.

1990 ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harris
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Functional Specialization ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Public Politics ◽  
General Secretary

During the first five years of his reign as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CC/CPSU) M.S. Gorbachev has changed the structure of authority in the USSR's political system. He initially regarded the interlocking directorate of Politburo and Secretariat as the final source of authority and the ultimate driving force for his program of reform, the CC/CPSU as a miniparliament for the discussion and elaboration of his proposals, and the CPSU's apparatus of full time officials as the major instrument to assure the program's implementation. Gorbachev's initial definition seemed to be the logical expression of his own experience as a party official who became General Secretary only after an extensive career as a regional party leader, a Secretary of the CC/CPSU with a functional specialization, and considerable experience as a member of the Politburo.

Why pioneer camps survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

2021 ◽  
pp. 161189442110186
Author(s):  
Anna Kozlova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Children’S Centres ◽  
Educational Field

The article analyses the survival of the children’s centres, Artek and Orlyonok, during the post-socialist transformation. It is based on 50 interviews with employees who worked there starting in the late-Soviet era. Artek and Orlyonok were exemplary children’s camps, subordinated to the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Since the early 1960s, they have functioned as schools for distinguished teenagers who were considered ‘good examples’ for other children. In this article, I have made an ethnographic analysis of Artek and Orlyonok employees’ late-Soviet experiences. This analysis shows how the agency of Soviet counsellors and camp directors became a creative interpretation of the governmental order to raise the children as active Soviet citizens. Camp educators transformed it in line with the idea to base their agency on ‘common human values’, which was spread in the Soviet educational field in the post-Stalin era. As a result, the Soviet teaching experiences gained in these education centres were heterogeneous. When a child-centred paradigm was later introduced to the post-Soviet educational system, the camps adopted the most applicable practices from their Soviet experiences.

The Challenges to Social Control in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, 1964-1982

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Fedor L. Sinitsyn
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Secretary

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.

India of 1920s as Seen by Soviet Playwright, Consulting Indologists, Theater Critics

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Igor Yu. Kotin ◽  
Nina G. Krasnodembskaya ◽  
Elena S. Soboleva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
10Th Anniversary ◽  
Russian Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Detailed Picture

The authors of this contribution analyze the circumstances and the history of a popular play that was staged in the Soviet Union in 1927-1928. Titled Jumah Masjid, this play was devoted to the anti-colonial movement in India. A manuscript of the play, not indicating its title and the name of its author, was found in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the papers related to A.M. and L.A. Meerwarth, members of the First Russian Expedition to Ceylon and India (1914-1918). Later on, two copies of this play under the title The Jumah Masjid were found in the Russian Archive of Literature and Art and in the Museum of the Tovstonogov Grand Drama Theatre. The authors of this article use archival and published sources to analyze the reasons for writing and staging the play. They consider the image of India as portrayed by a Soviet playwright in conjunction with Indologists that served as consultants, and as seen by theater critics and by the audience (according to what the press reflected). Arguably, the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia in 1927 and the VI Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1928 encouraged writing and staging the play. The detailed picture of the anti-colonial struggle in India that the play offered suggests that professional Indologists were consulted. At the same time the play is critical of the non-violent opposition encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi as well as the Indian National Congress and its political wing known as the Swaraj Party. The research demonstrates that the author of the play was G.S. Venetsianov, and his Indologist consultants were Alexander and Liudmila Meerwarth.

East European military expenditures in the 1970s: collective good or bargaining offer?

1983 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M. Reisinger
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Collective Good ◽  
East European ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Military Expenditures ◽  
Domestic Support ◽  
Nicolae Ceausescu ◽  
General Secretary

In late November 1978, Nicolae Ceausescu, general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, returned to Bucharest from a Moscow meeting of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO). In a series of speeches from 25 November through 1 December, he began to denounce efforts by the Soviet Union to integrate more fully the armies of the WTO members and to get the East European members to increase their defense expenditures. Ceausescu was making a dramatic (and apparently successful) appeal for domestic support for his resistance to Soviet pressure. Other WTO member-states, although less publicly, have also resisted this Soviet pressure. Romania is not the only East European state ignoring Soviet calls for higher defense spending. Poland, for example, has also shown a significant decline during the 1970s in the amount of its gross national product (GNP) spent on defense (D/GNP). East Germany, on the other hand, increased its expenditures dramatically over the same decade.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document