Making War on the Saints

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-101
Author(s):  
Brian Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social

This chapter focuses on France and the Soviet Union. France and the Soviet Union constitute the two most prominent European examples of a concerted campaign by twentieth-century states to reduce or even eliminate the social influence and political role of Christianity, especially as represented by the national church. In the further reaches of the Soviet Empire in Eastern and central Europe, Communist Party aims were similar, though in some countries—such as Poland—their implementation was highly problematic. Although obviously differing in the extent of their antagonism to religion itself, the two case studies reveal the capacity of the modern state, if it so chooses, to marginalize Christianity from the mainstream of public life and destroy much of the institutional and economic infrastructure of historic national churches. Yet both examples equally suggest that such measures of “official” secularization turned out to be comparatively impotent in subverting popular Christian belief and practice.

The Social and Political Role of the Orthodox Church in Post-Communist Russia

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Paul Valliere
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Security Network ◽  
Cultural Roles ◽  
The Church

The political role of the Orthodox Church in post-communist Russia is more difficult to assess than its social and cultural roles for several reasons. First, to offer any systematic observations on the matter one must attempt to construe the nature of the church-state relationship in Russia, a notoriously controversial subject. Second, one must make an educated guess concerning the part played by the huge internal security apparatus which only yesterday dominated the internal affairs of the Soviet Union, including religious affairs. The security establishment has been dislodged from its hegemonic role in the Soviet state as a result of the Gorbachev reforms, but there is little question that it continues to exist as a political force in the country. Reading the aims of this network is no easy matter, however, because by definition it operates in relative secrecy and by means of diversionary tactics. One also has to reckon with the possibility that the security network has been disrupted by the changes of recent years, and operates with less coordination than in the past.

Introduction: human blood and social policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Richard M. Titmuss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Human Blood ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the study of the beliefs, attitudes, and values concerning blood and its possession, inheritance, and use and loss in diverse societies. The study originated and grew over many years of introspection from a series of value questions formulated within the context of attempts to distinguish the ‘social’ from the ‘economic’ in public policies and in those institutions and services with declared ‘welfare’ goals. As such, this book centres on human blood: the scientific, social, economic, and ethical issues involved in its procurement, processing, distribution, use, and benefit in Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, South Africa, and other countries. Ultimately, it considers the role of altruism in modern society. It attempts to fuse the politics of welfare and the morality of individual wills.

Government Rulemaking as a Brake on Perestroika

1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Huskey
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Government

The Soviet political system is made up of three major institutions: the Communist Party, the parliament, and the government. Whereas the first two have changed dramatically under perestroika, the government has continued to function in more traditional ways. Most worrying to reformists, the government–the Soviet Union's “executive branch”–has used its broad rulemaking authority to impede the transformation of Soviet politics and society. This essay examines the role of governmental rules in the Soviet political and legal system. It concludes, following the lead of Soviet reformists, that without a fundamental restructuring of government making authority, legal, political, and economic reform in the Soviet Union cannot be institutionalized.

Conclusion

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Kligman ◽  
Katherine Verdery
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Institutional Infrastructure ◽  
Uniform Manner

This concluding chapter summarizes the main points of this analysis and seeks to extend it by addressing broader comparative questions about the socialist variant of modern state-making. The Soviet Union exported the revolutionary technology of collectivization to its satellites, providing the blueprint along with Soviet advisors to guide them. This blueprint set out the parameters for establishing collectives: new methods to improve agricultural production, a new institutional infrastructure, and an arsenal of pedagogical techniques with which cadres were to enlighten peasants and discipline dissenters. However, collectivization was not carried out in a uniform manner anywhere. Blueprints may provide a plan, but social practices are not so easily hammered or welded into place. Romania's small and weak Communist Party, dependent on the Soviet Union, faced a largely agrarian population that offered heavy resistance. Complicating their task was the ongoing strength of the country's interwar fascist movement in both rural and urban areas, among all social strata.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

2020 ◽  
pp. 331-369
Author(s):  
Michael Goldfield
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Complex Behavior ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Wing Movement ◽  
Left Group ◽  
The Soviet Union

Chapter 8 examines the role of the Communist Party, by far the largest Left group, during the 1930s and 1940s. It looks at the Party’s complex behavior, its many pluses and minuses, and its ties to the Soviet Union. In particular, it examines the role of CP activists as trade union militants and as the unabashed and unrelenting champions of civil rights, a role that distinguished them from the members of all other interracial organizations during this period. Yet it also looks at the Party’s role in demoralizing and destroying the left-wing movement in the 1930s and 1940s, even undermining many of the organizations and movements it had helped create, including those dedicated to civil rights.

scholarly journals Chinese Reaction and Interpretation of 1991 Events in the Soviet Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-111
Author(s):  
I. Y. Zuenko
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
Chinese Leadership ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Large Bulk ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article is timed to coincide with two anniversaries: centenary of the Communist Party of China, and thirty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to the author’s idea, these two anniversaries correlate: analysis of the reasons and consequences of the USSR dissolution became one of the factors of current policy of Chinese communists. The article brings light to this coherence. A wide range of Chinese sources and literature regarding 1991 events in the USSR was used for the article. Another feature is the attention to historical context of the late 1980s – early 1990s, analysis of which helps to understand domination of conservative view to the USSR dissolution. The article shows how the Chinese state and party interest in the Soviet experience led to creation of a large bulk of works regarding historical, sociological and culturological aspects of the USSR dissolution. The analysis of the most impactful of these works shows a wide range of views regarding certain aspects (fi rst of all, the role of reforms in the fi nal dissolution of the state) and consensus regarding other aspects (negative role of Mikhail Gorbachev, labelling the dissolution of the USSR and the Communist Party as a ‘catastrophe’). Further analysis of the Soviet experience led to such measures by the Chinese leadership like strengthening of partocracy regime, conducting of media-covered anti-smuggling campaigns, establishing of harsh administrative and security control in areas with ethnic minorities, active counterpropaganda and struggling with foreign information infl uence. Appellation to the negative experience of the USSR and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is using by the Chinese leadership in its propaganda as an argument for unacceptability of any political reforms regarding weakening of the party role.

The KGB, Perestroika, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Knight
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Direct Part ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Direct Control ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
State Security ◽  
The Soviet Union

This article examines the role of the Committee on State Security (KGB) during the turbulent six-and-a-half years under Mikhail Gorbachev, from March 1985 to December 1991. Contrary to popular impressions, the KGB was never an independent actor in the Soviet system; it acted at the behest of the Communist Party. When Vladimir Kryuchkov replaced Viktor Chebrikov as head of the KGB in 1986, the move signaled what was intended to be a new role for the KGB. But as the reforms launched by Gorbachev became more radical, and as political instability in the Soviet Union became widespread, many in the KGB grew anxious about the possible fragmentation of the country. These concerns were instrumental in the decision by Kryuchkov and other high-ranking KGB officials to organize a hardline coup in August 1991. Even then, however, the KGB was not truly independent of the party. On the contrary, KGB officials were expecting—and then desperately hoping—that Gorbachev would agree to order an all-out crackdown. Because Gorbachev was unwilling to take a direct part in mass repression, Kryuchkov lacked the authority he was seeking to act. As a result, the attempted coup failed, and the KGB was forced onto the defensive. Shortly before the Soviet state was dissolved, the KGB was broken up into a number of agencies that soon came under Russia's direct control.

Bergelson, Dovid (1884–1952)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
Fiction Writing ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Narrative Techniques

Dovid Bergelson was a major Yiddish prose writer and essayist. He had a lasting impact on Yiddish fiction writing, introducing new narrative techniques such as free indirect discourse. He brought literary creation in Yiddish to new heights, appropriating the language for the purposes of an Impressionist, high literary style. He was also a prolific essayist, committed to the notion of the social role of the writer, and to the ideals of Yiddishism, the creation of a new secular Yiddish culture in the name of a Jewish national project rooted in Eastern Europe and distinct from Zionism. These political ideals partly explain Bergelson’s conversion to Soviet state socialism in 1926: in his view, the Soviet Union was the only place compatible with the Yiddishist project. He settled there permanently in 1934. His later literary production radically differed from his earlier writings, and conformed to the doctrine of Socialist Realism. In 1942, he joined the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, supporting the Soviet war effort against Nazi Germany. After the war, Stalin turned against the Committee. Bergelson was arrested in 1949, then executed on 12 August 1952, together with twelve other Jewish writers and intellectuals.

Nationality Question in the Resolutions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1898–1964

1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-201
Author(s):  
Silvia P. Forgus
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Domestic Power

Since its conception in 1898 the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has had to contend with the nationality question. The Party has had to formulate programs and make organizational and functional decisions pertaining to national rights. It has had to dwell on political aspects of the issue and adopt resolutions touching on the social, economic, and cultural problems of non-Russian nations in the Russian Empire and the Soviet State. What were these resolutions and what effect, if any, did ideological considerations, domestic power struggles, situational factors, and personal styles of the party leaders have on the resolutions?

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