The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

Оглавление

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION. Theme 1. THE STUDY OF MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY: MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS

Theme 2. RUSSIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ITS SELF-IMAGE, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, AND CONTRADICTIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Theme 3. FESTIVAL OF THE OPPRESSED OR SOCIAL DISEASE? THE NATURE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

Theme 4. EMERGENCY MEASURES AND THE «EXTREME EMERGENCY REGIME» IN THE SOVIET REPUBLIC AND OTHER STATE FORMATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA, 1918‒1920

Theme 5. FROM «WAR COMMUNISM» TO THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: CONTRADICTIONS OF THE NEP

Theme 6. NEP DOWNSIZING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLICY OF EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES INTO A PERMANENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Theme 7. THE 1930S: CRISES, REFORMS, REPRESSIONS

Theme 8. THE HIERARCHY OF THE GREAT TERROR

Theme 9. ILLUSIONS AND AWAKENING OF THE GENERATION OF 1930S

Theme 10. THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941‒1945: MAIN EVENTS AND POPULAR MOOD IN THE UNOCCUPIED SOVIET UNION

Theme 11. THE PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR ERA

Theme 12. THE KHRUSHCHEV’S THAW AND ITS REVERSE SIDE

Theme 13. SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES: FROM REFORMS TO STAGNATION

Theme 14. THE 1980S: THE SPACE OF POWER AND A SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS

Theme 15. AUGUST PUTSCH OF 1991 AND THE TERMIDOR OF YELTSIN

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA. WITH WHAT DOES RUSSIA ENTER THE NEW MILLENNIUM?. Theme 16. THE REALM OF POWER UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN

Theme 17. REFORMS AND THE HIERARCHY OF NATIONAL PROJECTS

Theme 18. LOCATING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD OF 1917 IN RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 19. THE GREAT VICTORY OF 1945 IN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 20. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSIAN UTOPIAS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE AS IMAGINED BY THE STATE AND DESIRED BY THE INTELLIGENTSIA

MAIN EVENTS, DATES AND GLOSSARY

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

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Theme 14.
THE 1980S: THE SPACE OF POWER AND A SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS

Let us note in brief the Soviet history of the 1980s.

In the first half of the decade, political life in the Soviet Union was shaken with frequent changes of leaders. In January 1982 Mikhail Suslov, the chief ideologist of the party, died. Later that year, in November, Leonid Brezhnev, the long-time head of the party and state died, too. He was replaced by Yuri Andropov who died in less than 15 months, in February 1984. Konstantin Chernenko acquired the highest authority, but in March 1985 there was another funeral and another changing of power.

Mikhail Gorbachev and his new team staked their early program on «acceleration», but this policy appeared to result in a growing number of accidents in different sectors of economy. More than anything, the Chernobyl nuclear power station accident of April 1986 became a gloomy symbol of catastrophe.

In 1987 Gorbachev launched «perestroika», which meant radical economic and political reforms as well as ideological revision.

In 1989 the First Congress of People’s Deputies elected by a new electoral law was convened.

At the same time, the Baltic republics planned to withdraw fully from the Soviet Union. In response, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation headed by Boris Yeltsin passed a declaration on national sovereignty. In 1990 the Communist Party ceased to be the nucleus of the Soviet political system, and this fact was reflected in the new Constitution. The multiparty system started to revive. In December 1990 Nikolai Ryzhkov, the head of the Government, stated the economy had collapsed and with it the «breakdown of perestroika. He then resigned.

Let us also remind you about international factors. What did the early 80s internationally? There were only a few, really significant developments:

1. The «Solidarity» Movement in Poland signifying a starting-point for the crisis of Soviet satellite system in Central Eastern Europe;

2. The Soviet armed intervention in Afghanistan gradually bleeding the USSR dry;

3. The disposition of American cruise missiles in Western Germany, Great Britain and Italy, and then, of Soviet missiles in Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany, which marked a turn from the detente policy to confrontation;

4. The shooting-down of a South Korean passenger aircraft which encouraged Reagan to brand the Soviet Union an «evil empire».

In 1987–88 Gorbachev proposed the idea of «new thinking» in international relations. Soviet-American summits were restored. An agreement was reached about the elimination of a whole class of nuclear weapons. Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan. In 1989–1990 «velvet revolutions» took place in East European countries. Communist parties there were deposed from power. The German Democratic Republic as a state, disappeared and merged with the Federative Republic of Germany.

Even a brief enumeration of these significant events demonstrates how difficult it is to analyze the 1980s historically. A possible key to it can be found in a question worded in the Soviet Academy of Science in 1980 — «Have we built the right society?» A bit later it was publicly repeated by Andropov himself. Why was the question put in just this way?

By the early 80s, an illusion had reigned in the Soviet Union about a successful economic development based on the changes enacted after Stalin’s death — The Command Administration System. Steel, cement and tractor production were increasing rapidly. But traditional, out-of-date branches consumed a lot of natural resources which often were not used efficiently. Modern high technology productions formed only a small sector of economy. Moreover, they worked mostly for military orders.

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

The XXth Century Political History of Russia presents lecture materials for academics working with undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers of Russian history.<br /> The chapters are an unusual insight into the Russian past, which makes the readers think, analyze and also reconsider some events of the Russian history. It is an exciting blend of stories of the past and future trends, allowing to make forecasts and predictions.

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