Soviet Ideologies in the Period of Glasnost: Responses to Brezhnev's Stagnation

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The mid-1970s found almost all spheres of Soviet society in economic, social and moral decline, a decline that generated conflicting ideologies offering solutions. "Soviet ideologies in the period of glasnost" provides a penetrating examination of these unofficial ideologies, both historically and analytically, based upon studies of Soviet media, literature, films, underground literature, and Western scholarly works. Vladimir Shlapentokh explores all the main unofficial ideological trends in the post-Stalin era, focusing on liberal Westernized and Russophile-Slavophile ideology. The first two chapters analyze those processes that economically and morally crippled the nation, particularly the Soviet consumer and the privatization process. The next two chapters cover the economic, political and ideological state of the USSR in the early 1980s. Subsequent chapters examine conservative ideology, with its justification of stagnation and neo-Stalinism offered by the political elite. Finally, Shlapentokh examines Gorbachev's ideological revolution that started as neo-Stalinist but soon evolved into a Liberal-Marxist trends. Students and professors of Soviet studies, comparative sociology, and international relations will find this volume a thorough and well-documented discussion of unofficial thinking trends in the Soviet Union during the post-Brezhnev era.

Reviews

. . .well worth the attention of anyone who seeks to understand the constellation of interests and ideas stuggling for the right to shape the future of the Soviet Union. He effectively demostrates a point that seemed to be forgotten by most students of Soviet politics not long ago--that ideological interpretations of the dynamics of Soviet society strongly influence political leaders' policy choices.-The Russian Review
Shlapentokh, author of Soviet Public Opinion and Ideology (CH, Apr '87) and a former senior fellow at Moscow's Institute of Sociology, has written an important study of responses to the general domestic crisis of the USSR. The first half of the book is devoted to examination of the background of the current crisis; the second half covers major ideological tendencies, conservative, ' neo-Stalinist, ' and liberal.' Shlapentokh shows how Gorbachev has gradually absorbed much, but by no means all, of the liberal' ideology but concludes that future prospects for liberalizing tendencies are highly uncertain. . . . Shlapentokh's insights make this first comprehensive treatment of Soviet ideology in the Gorbachev era one of the more significant studies of the USSR in recent years. A must for all graduate students in Soviet politics.-Choice
." . .well worth the attention of anyone who seeks to understand the constellation of interests and ideas stuggling for the right to shape the future of the Soviet Union. He effectively demostrates a point that seemed to be forgotten by most students of Soviet politics not long ago--that ideological interpretations of the dynamics of Soviet society strongly influence political leaders' policy choices."-The Russian Review
"Shlapentokh, author of Soviet Public Opinion and Ideology (CH, Apr '87) and a former senior fellow at Moscow's Institute of Sociology, has written an important study of responses to the general domestic crisis of the USSR. The first half of the book is devoted to examination of the background of the current crisis; the second half covers major ideological tendencies, conservative, ' neo-Stalinist, ' and liberal.' Shlapentokh shows how Gorbachev has gradually absorbed much, but by no means all, of the liberal' ideology but concludes that future prospects for liberalizing tendencies are highly uncertain. . . . Shlapentokh's insights make this first comprehensive treatment of Soviet ideology in the Gorbachev era one of the more significant studies of the USSR in recent years. A must for all graduate students in Soviet politics."-Choice

Author Bio

VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH is Professor of Sociology at the Michigan State University and a former Senior Fellow at the Sociological Institute in Moscow where he conducted the first nationwide surveys of pubic opinion in the Soviet Union. He has published numerous books and articles both in the Soviet Union, before his emigration in 1979, and in the United States. Among his most recent books are Soviet Public Opinion and Ideology (Praeger, 1986), The Politics of Sociology in the Soviet Union (1987) and The Public and Private Life of the Soviet People (1988).