Legitimacy and the Former Soviet Union
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It has been repeatedly pointed out that much of the legitimacy that the Soviet regime enjoyed was connected with the modest growth in the standards of living that have been a feature of Soviet society, especially after World War II and during the early portion of the Brezhnev period. The insignificant cost of housing, food and other basic necessities--whenever available and whatever low quality--guaranteed full employment and some possibilities for social mobility. In this sense it can be argued that the Soviet economy was largely responsive to political direction in the Stalin and post-Stalin periods up to 1985. However on a deeper level the Soviet system was about to become undone because it was based on a developmental model that appears to have been outmoded (Colton, "What Ails the Soviet System, pp. 13-19).Notwithstanding all the horror associated with Stalinist industrialization; such as the creation of a large working class out of a sea of peasants, the occasionally artificial bloating of the educated and professional classes to staff a constantly growing bureaucratic apparatus and the institutionalization of a sophisticated system of privileges associated with the party apparatus and the military, to some extent the ideological promises of communism seemed to have been fulfilled (Tucker, Political Culture and Leadership in the Soviet Union, pp. 51-103) In fact, it would be impossible to explain the stability and legitimacy of t
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War provided convenient justifications for the continuation of a similar type of rule up to the rise of Khrushchev.
Yet the historical record would seem to indicate that Khrushev did not make sure that his power base remained solidly behind him (Breslauer, "Khrushchev and Brezhnew as Leaders," pp.4-9) And then Brezhnev's counter-revolution found itself in an even more curious position. Although it sought to return to the status quo by scuttling peaceful coexistence with the 1968 Czech invasion, it found it impossible to simply recycle Stalinism after Khrushchev had delegitimated it.
What the Brezhnev regime appeared to accomplish was a type institutional compromise where the largely state-dependent working class created by the previous 50 years of socialism, was willing to forfeit civil and political liberties in exchange for the basic amenities and vague promises of gradual improvements in overall living standards(Berliner, "Planning and Management, pp.468-483).
But as Colton has argued, in a situation where extensive development had reached its outer limit with the exhaustion of human and natural resources, Brezhnev managed to keep his promise only by further exploiting natural resources especially during the two maj
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Approximate Word count = 1312
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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