Economics and Politics in a Socialist Country: Gorbachev's New Concepts

1988 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus von Beyme
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Public Enterprises ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Social Tasks ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Economics And Politics

SINCE GORBACHEV'S COMING TO POWER THE RELATIONSHIP between economics and politics in the Soviet Union has been changing rapidly. But even from the outset one could see that there would be limits to change. The primacy of politics which characterizes the relationship between economics and politics under the conditions of socialism in power will be fully maintained in the future, too. All proposals for more decentralization meet with obstacles when they seem to call into question the leading role of the party. The party is only advised to observe a kind of ‘economic restraint’: it should stop mingling every aspect of public administration with the economy. The idea is to free the party from its responsibility for detail in order to allow it to concentrate more on its central political tasks. In this respect socialism has problems similar to those which Western governments face in the welfare state. After the end of the hegemony of social democracy it is, above all, the conservative parties in Western Europe who are ready to reduce the responsibility of the governments of the day for many economic and social tasks: this is why we find deregulation efforts, privatization of public enterprises and the transfer of political functions to non-state social organizations everywhere.

“Soviet mentality?” The role of shared political culture in relations between the Armenian state and Russia's Armenian diaspora

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Cavoukian
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Armenian Diaspora ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
Management Institutions ◽  
The Relationship

Russia's Armenians have begun to form diaspora institutions and engage in philanthropy and community organization, much as the pre-Soviet “established” diaspora in the West has done for years. However, the Russian Armenian diaspora is seen by Armenian elites as being far less threatening due to a shared “mentality.” While rejecting the mentality argument, I suggest that the relationship hinges on their shared political culture and the use of symbols inherited from the Soviet Union in the crafting of new diaspora and diaspora-management institutions. Specifically, “Friendship of the Peoples” symbolism appears to be especially salient on both sides. However, the difference between old and new diasporas may be more apparent than real. The Russian Armenian diaspora now engages in many of the same activities as the Western diaspora, including the one most troublesome to Armenia's elites: involvement in politics.

Relational Rules and Communist Single-Party Regimes

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-142
Author(s):  
Graeme Gill
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Symbolic Function ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Relational Rules ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Relational rules structure the relationship between the oligarchs and the elite, and the oligarchs and the institutions of the regime. The chapter analyses how the 11 relational rules functioned in the Soviet Union and China over the life of the respective regimes. It explains how the oligarchs sought to insulate themselves from below and, in looking at the role of political institutions, tackles the idea that institutions serve little more than a symbolic function in authoritarian regimes. A major focus is also the power of the individual leader, its nature and bases and how this related to those institutions.

Part 1 The Cold War Era (1945–89), 13 The Intervention in Czechoslovakia—1968

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafner Gerhard
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Valid Consent ◽  
The Cold War

This contribution discusses the intervention of five member states of the Warsaw Pact Organization under the leading role of the Soviet Union in the CSSR in August 1968, which terminated the “Prague Spring” in a forceful manner. After presenting the facts of this intervention and its reasons, it describes the legal positions of the protagonists of this intervention as well as that of the states condemning it, as presented in particular in the Security Council. It then examines the legality of this intervention against general international law and the particular views of the Soviet doctrine existing at that time, defending some sort of socialist (regional) international law. This case stresses the requirement of valid consent for the presence of foreign troops in a country and denies the legality of any justification solely based on the necessity to maintain the political system within a state.

scholarly journals Non-Soviet Perspectives on the Great Famine: A Comparative Analysis of British, Italian, Polish, and German Sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Fonzi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Great Famine ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe present contribution analyzes systematically diplomatic reports written by German, Italian, British, and Polish representatives in the Soviet Union at the time of the Great Famine. Based on both published documents and unpublished archival sources, the article examines comparatively the perception of the Great Famine in these four countries. After providing a short overview of the diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the four countries at the time of the famine, this article examines how German, Italian, British, and Polish diplomats explained three key issues for understanding the Great Famine: (1) the role of the conflicts between state and peasantry in unleashing the famine; (2) the issue of whether the Soviet government intentionally caused the famine; and (3) the role of intentions in the development of the famine and the relationship between the nationalities policy of the Soviet government and the famine.

Commemorating the Soviet Deportations of 1945 and Community-Building in Post-communist Upper Silesia

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
EWA OCHMAN
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Upper Silesia ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Collapse Of Communism ◽  
Post War ◽  
Separatist Movement ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article focuses on the remembrance of the deportations of Silesians to the Soviet Union in 1945, undertaken in Upper Silesia, Poland, after the collapse of communism. It explores the relationship between local elite-sponsored official remembrance of the deportations and the formation of regional identity in the context of the Upper Silesia's borderland locality and the post-war population movement. The article also investigates the role of public commemorations of the Silesian past in the construction of a Silesian national identity undertaken by the Silesian separatist movement that gained in popularity against the backdrop of the post-1989 de-industrialisation of the region, Poland's most important centre for coal mining industry.

From the Cold War to the Clash of Civilizations

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-155
Author(s):  
Joan Wallach Scott
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter argues that, in the second half of the twentieth century, the old public/private distinction was dissolved in the realms of both religion and sexuality. This put into place concepts that prepared a new discourse of secularism in Western Europe and the Anglo-American world—one in which Islam took the place of Soviet communism as a threat to social order. Secularism as a political discourse was eclipsed by the Cold War, although its traces and effects were not. The relationship of the state to religion was reformulated as the Soviet Union came to represent, not the embodiment of secularism as it had been defined in the nineteenth-century anticlerical campaigns but the home of what was derided as godless atheism. In this new discourse, the secular and the Christian were increasingly considered synonymous, and women's sexual emancipation became the primary indicator of gender equality.

Italian Communism and Soviet Terror

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Richard Drake
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Before And After ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
The Relationship

The declassification of materials from the Russian archives has provided a good deal of new evidence about the relationship between the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Soviet Union both before and after World War II. Two newly published collections of documents leave no doubt that, contrary to arguments made by supporters of the PCI, the Italian party was in fact strictly subservient to the dictates of Josif Stalin. The documents reveal the unsavory role of the PCI leader, Palmiro Togliatti, in the destruction of large sections of the Italian Communist movement and in the tragic fate of Italian prisoners of war who were held in the Soviet Union during and after World War II. Togliatti's legacy, as these documents make clear, was one of terror and the Stalinization of the PCI.

scholarly journals Le Corbusier versus Sergei Eisenstein. La construcción de un sueño

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Martínez Millana
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Le Corbusier ◽  
Moving Image ◽  
Sergei Eisenstein ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In

Resumen: Este artículo plantea la revisión de la relación entre el arquitecto Le Corbusier y el cineasta Sergei Eisenstein. Se lanza como hipótesis la posible influencia del cineasta en Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier versus Eisenstein en el sentido más profundo de ‘avanzar en dirección a’: Le Corbusier hacia la cinematografía, no como contraposición. Se esboza el papel de cada figura y su encuentro en el período de 1928-1936, tiempo en que Le Corbusier se aproximó a la Unión Soviética, un contexto que configura un marco complejo a partir del cual es posible entrever aquello que los vincula y que refuerza la hipótesis planteada. Por otro lado, se realiza un análisis de Poème électronique - filme de 480” que Le Corbusier hace en 1958 con motivo de la Exposición Universal en Bruselas - con la intención de visibilizar que Le Corbusier recurre a la técnica del montaje dialéctico de la que Eisenstein era maestro y por tanto la consustancial influencia. Le Corbusier reconoce el potencial de esta técnica de montaje y se sirve de ella como la estrategia clave en su aproximación al ámbito de la cinematografía. El mecanismo del montaje dialéctico forma parte de su propio pensamiento y lo materializa en su arquitectura y también en el caso de estudio que nos ocupa, en la disciplina de la imagen en movimiento, tan próxima a ésta. Pero hay más, en el Pabellón Philips la técnica del montaje oculto - sobre la que Eisenstein había teorizado en aquél periodo - está presente, pues mediante éste mecanismo construye la puesta en escena del espectáculo total. Como veremos, Poème électronique representa la construcción de un sueño. Abstract: This article reviews the relationship between the architect Le Corbusier and the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. When launched, it was seen to hypothesise the possible influence of the filmmaker in the work of Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier versus Eisenstein, in the deepest sense of the expression, is portrayed as "towards to": Le Corbusier towards the film, not in opposition to it. It outlines the role of each figure and their interactions during the period between 1928 and 1936, the time when Le Corbusier got closer to the Soviet Union. This context forms a complex framework from which it is possible to glimpse what it is that links them, reinforcing the hypothesis-raised. On the other hand, this work presents an analysis of the Poème électronique - 480" film Le Corbusier made in 1958 for the Universal Exhibition in Brussels - in order to exemplify that Le Corbusier uses the technique of dialectical montage, in which Eisenstein was the undisputed master, thereby highlighting an inherent influence. Le Corbusier recognises the potential of this montage technique and uses it as a key strategy in his approach to the field of cinema. The mechanism of dialectical montage is a part of Le Corbusier's own thought and this materialises both in his architecture as well as in the subsequent case study regarding the discipline of the moving image, which is closely aligned to it. There is, however, more to it. In the Philips Pavilion, the hidden montage technique - theorised by Eisenstein in that period - is present, the use of which was the mechanism to construct the stage for the spectacle as a whole. As we will see, Poème électronique represents the construction of a dream.  Palabras clave: Eisenstein; Le Corbusier; Le Poème électronique; montaje dialéctico; montaje oculto; cinematografía. Keywords: Eisenstein; Le Corbusier; Le Poème électronique; dialectical montage; hidden montage; cinematography. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/LC2015.2015.824

Coping with the Soviet Union: the European and Chinese experience

1986 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-278
Author(s):  
Gerald Segal
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The West ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
West European

China and western Europe share a common concern—their powerful neighbour the Soviet Union. Yet it is only in the past three years that Chinese and west European attitudes towards the Soviet Union have begun to converge. The absence of any previous Sino-European agreement on the role of, and reaction to, the Soviet Union has primarily been due to the vagaries of Chinese policy. Despite Chinese assertions and west European self-flagellation, in the past 35 years the west has been stable and largely secure, whereas China has been changeable and largely insecure. Yet despite recent converging trends in Sino-west European views of the Soviet Union, there are important reasons why both China and western Europe will continue to differ in how they meet the Soviet challenge.

POST-SOVIET CITY AS A PALIMPSEST

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Coordinator ◽  
Post Soviet Period

The author of the publication reviews the photobook “Palimpsests”, published in 2018 in the publishing house “Ad Marginem Press” with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The book presents photos of post-Soviet cities taken by M. Sher. Preface, the author of which is the coordinator of the “Democracy” program of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Russia N. Fatykhova, as well as articles by M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush, which accompany these photos, contain explanation of the peculiarities of urban space formation and patterns of its habitation in the Soviet Union times and in the post-Soviet period. The author of the publication highly appreciates the publication under review. Analyzing the photographic works of M. Sher and their interpretation undertaken in the articles, the author of the publication agrees with the main conclusions of N. Fatykhova, M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush with regards to the importance of the role of the state in the processes of urban development and urbanization in the Soviet and post-Soviet space, but points out that the second factor that has a key influence on these processes is ownership relations. The paper positively assesses the approach proposed by the authors of the photobook to the study of the post-Soviet city as an architectural and landscape palimpsest consisting mainly of two layers, “socialist” and “capitalist”. The author of the publication specifically emphasizes the importance of analyzing the archetypal component of this palimpsest, pointing out that the articles published in the reviewed book do not pay sufficient attention to this issue. Particular importance is attributed by the author to the issue of metageography of post-Soviet cities and meta-geographical approach to their exploration. Emphasizing that the urban palimpsest is a system of realities, each in turn including a multitude of ideas, meanings, symbols, and interpretations, the author points out that the photobook “Palimpsests” is actually an invitation to a scientific game with space, which should start a new direction in the study of post-Soviet urban space.

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