To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Soviet union, history, 1953-1991.
Journal articles on the topic 'Soviet union, history, 1953-1991'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 journal articles for your research on the topic 'Soviet union, history, 1953-1991.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse journal articles on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Morcom, S. P. "The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union, 1929-1953." English Historical Review 119, no. 483 (September 1, 2004): 1097–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehr/119.483.1097.
Full text
2
Kramer, Mark. "Official Responses to Ethnic Unrest in the USSR, 1985–1991." Russian History 49, no. 2-4 (April 28, 2023): 289–335. http://dx.doi.org/10.30965/18763316-12340051.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract The Soviet Union, like the large, multiethnic land empires in Europe that came to an end in the early 20th century (Habsburg, Imperial Russian, Ottoman), consisted of a central government ruling over far-flung regions in which particular ethnic and cultural groups were predominant. For many years, Soviet leaders were able to maintain the internal stability of the multiethnic Soviet state by relying on a mix of extreme coercion and occasional concessions to local demands. Soon after Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, he adopted sweeping political liberalization and democratization, including the first free elections ever held in the USSR. The loosening of political control in a state that had long been known for brutal repression had far-reaching consequences for social stability. The political opportunities that opened for ethnic groups in the Soviet Union to push for far-reaching change, including independence, created great difficulty for Gorbachev’s attempts to hold the Soviet Union together. Although he could have resorted to the use of large-scale violence as previous Soviet leaders had repeatedly done, he was deeply reluctant to cause mass bloodshed. His aversion to the use of mass repression was one of the key factors that precipitated the unraveling of the USSR. This article presents an in-depth analysis of Gorbachev’s responses to ethnic unrest in the Soviet Union from 1986 through 1991.
3
Lovell, S. "Creative Union: The Professional Organization of Soviet Composers, 1939-1953." English Historical Review CXXIII, no. 502 (May 30, 2008): 797–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cen150.
Full text
4
Dobson, M. "The Soviet Union: A Documentary History Vol. II: 1939-1991." English Historical Review CXXIII, no. 501 (April 1, 2008): 521–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cen013.
Full text
5
Dunlop, John B. "The August 1991 Coup and Its Impact on Soviet Politics." Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2003): 94–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039703320996731.
Full textAbstract:
A book published by the author in 1993 contained a lengthy chapter on the August 1991 coup attempt in the Soviet Union. This article builds on and updates that chapter, making use of a trove of newly available documents and memoirs. The article discusses many aspects of the coup attempt, but it particularly seeks to explain why the coup failed and what the implications were for the Soviet Union. The events of December 1991 that culminated in the dissolution of the Soviet Union were the direct result of changes set in motion by the failed coup. The major state and party institutions that might ordinarily have tried to hold the country together—the Communist Party apparatus, the secret police, the military-industrial complex, the Ministry of Defense, and the state administrative organs—all were compromised by their participation in the coup. As a result, when events pushed the Soviet Union toward collapse there was no way of staving off that outcome.
6
Melkonyan, Ashot A., Karen H. Khachatryan, and Igor V. Kryuchkov. "Проблемы советского национально-государственного строительства (историко-критический анализ на примере Армении)." Oriental studies 16, no. 2 (June 1, 2023): 340–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2023-66-2-340-352.
Full textAbstract:
Introduction. Throughout the shaping of the Soviets, the Armenian nation passed its historical way of development as a union member and grew to be administratively represented by two Soviet Armenian ethnic entities — the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ranked a union republic) and Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (a territory within the Azerbaijan SSR). The First Republic was established in late May 1918 to be replaced by the Second Republic, or Soviet Armenia, in early December 1920. In 1920–1922, the latter was officially referred to as ‘independent Socialist Soviet Republic of Armenia’, and then as a territory within the Transcaucasian Soviet Federation (1922–1936) and the Soviet Union (1936–1991). After Transcaucasian Federation was abolished in 1936, Soviet Armenia was incorporated into the USSR as a self-sufficient union republic under the name Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Goals. The study seeks to show the process of nation-state building in the USSR through the example of Armenia. Materials and methods. The article analyzes archival materials represented by official documents and acts dealing with Soviet nation-state building, as well as collections of laws and party decrees. The main research methods employed are the historical/comparative and historical/genetic ones. Results. Soviet Armenia within the USSR, as well as other Soviet republics and autonomies, was no independent state in the conventional sense, but at the same time it was endowed with many attributes and symbols of statehood. Finally, it was Soviet Armenia that — for first time in the history of Armenian statehood — obtained its own Constitution. Conclusions. Soviet Armenia was a nation in the unified Soviet state, and in the conditions of seven decades of unlimited power of the Communist Party preserved and developed the Armenian Soviet statehood to a maximum possible then and there. Most Armenian historians believe the present-day independent Third Republic would never have emerged (since 1991) but for the period of Soviet Armenia.
7
Hatzivassiliou, Evanthis. "Images of the Adversary: NATO Assessments of the Soviet Union, 1953–1964." Journal of Cold War Studies 11, no. 2 (April 2009): 89–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jcws.2009.11.2.89.
Full textAbstract:
The article presents the analysis of the study groups set up by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to assess the non-military aspects of Soviet power and potential during the era of Nikita Khrushchev. Following Stalin's death, the Western alliance tried to form a comprehensive view of the strengths and weaknesses of the USSR's economy and political system. This was part of NATO's effort to adjust to the realities of a long Cold War, the outcome of which would not be decided by military force alone. The NATO reports were largely successful in describing the long-term trends of the Soviet economy and the weaknesses of the Soviet system. However, they usually failed to anticipate specific, though significant and potentially dangerous, initiatives of the Soviet regime. On balance they were a crucial input for NATO ministers, and their importance in the shaping of Western policies needs to be evaluated carefully.
8
White, Frederick H. "British Lord, American Movie Idol and Soviet Counterculture Figure." Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 42, no. 1 (April 13, 2015): 64–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18763324-04201004.
Full textAbstract:
For an entire generation of Soviet youth, Tarzan was a provocative symbol of individualism and personal freedom. Previous scholarship has included Tarzan within the larger counterculture movement of the thaw period (1953–64), but has not specifically examined how this occurred. Joseph S. Nye has coined the term soft power to describe the ability to attract and to co-opt rather than to force another nation into accepting your ideals. Within this rubric, Tarzan’s presence in the Soviet Union was simultaneously entertaining and provocative. As literary fare in the 1920s, Tarzan represented an escape from war and revolution and was sanctioned as acceptable reading for Soviet youths. The celluloid Tarzan also represented an escape, but this time from the repressive Stalinist regime and the hardships of post-WWII Soviet society. Raised on both the books and films, a new generation of Soviet youth longed for the individual freedom that Tarzan came to represent. Tarzan’s impact in the Soviet Union is one example of western cultural infiltration that contributed to the idealization of American individualism over the Soviet collective within the Soviet Union.
9
Антон Олександрович Сичевський. "POWER AND «OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE»: ANTI-RELIGIOUS AGITATION AND PROPAGANDA IN SOVIET UKRAINE IN 1944–1991." Intermarum history policy culture, no. 5 (January 1, 2018): 291–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.35433/history.111821.
Full textAbstract:
The article analyzes the implementation mechanism and organizational system of anti-religious agitation and propaganda in Soviet Ukraine. The author recorded a conflict between the republican and all-union centers for religious cults regarding the implementation of religious policies and atheization of the population. It is analyzed how the change in the state leadership of the USSR in 1954 led to a radical reassessment of the ideological struggle with religion as a relic of class formations in the minds of people.It was established that in the 1960s cinematographic works were actively involved in anti-religious propaganda. The actual number of regional commissioners to the Council for Religious Affairs also increased, committees for assistance were set up in all cities and districts of the regions, public councils for the coordination of anti-religious work were organized under the regional committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine. It was found out that within the framework of the atheistic education of society, the Soviet leadership introduced the concept of Soviet «non-religious» holidays and rituals, honoring the leaders of communist labor. The structural formalization of organizations responsible for the introduction of the new Soviet rituals in the 1970s is analyzed.The article describes the employment of the media resource and state publishing houses that published millions of copies of atheistic periodicals and literature for the sake of «eradicating the religious consciousness of the masses» by the party leadership. The reduction of state influence on the affairs of believers since the mid-1960s and the harsh criticism of the liberal course in relation to religion at the All-Union Conference of Commissioners for Religious Affairs in 1972 are analyzed. It is proved that, despite the «Perestroika», the idea of religion as a reactionary ideology and the need to transform the society of mass atheism into a society of general atheism prevailed in atheistic education.The author found out that in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine a discussion on the importance of rethinking the strategy of religious policy to establish a dialogue with churches and guaranteeing believers the possibility of religious freedom began only in 1990.
10
Kramer, Mark. "The Dissolution of the Soviet Union." Journal of Cold War Studies 24, no. 1 (2022): 188–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jcws_a_01059.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract In late December 1991—some 74 years after the Bolsheviks had taken power in Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin—the Soviet Communist regime and the Soviet state itself ceased to exist. The demise of the Soviet Union occurred less than seven years after Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Communist Party. Soon after taking office in March 1985, Gorbachev had launched a series of drastic political and economic changes that he hoped would improve and strengthen the Communist system and bolster the country's superpower status. But in the end, far from strengthening Communism, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (official openness) led inadvertently to the collapse of the Soviet regime and the unraveling of the Soviet state. This article analyzes the breakup of the Soviet Union, explaining why that outcome, which had seemed so unlikely at the outset, occurred in such a short period of time.
11
HUXTABLE, SIMON. "Making News Soviet: Rethinking Journalistic Professionalism after Stalin, 1953–1970." Contemporary European History 27, no. 1 (December 14, 2017): 59–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777317000467.
Full textAbstract:
This article challenges the assumption, frequently made in scholarship on Soviet media, that news was absent in the Soviet Union. Working across press, radio, and television, the article shows how after 1953 reform of Soviet news became a priority for journalists, editors and media professionals. The article focuses on discussions among journalists and officials about the future of journalism, arguing that journalists’ notions of professional excellence played a crucial role in shaping news coverage. In a climate of Cold War competition with western radio, new technological possibilities and changing political priorities, journalists gradually overcame their condescension towards news, emphasising its civic potential as an agent of social ‘democratisation’, and the artistic nature of reportage. This new configuration was precarious, however, and collapsed after the Czechoslovakian crisis of 1968. As the Party placed new restrictions on the flow of information, news lost its professional prestige.
12
SCHMELZ, PETER J. "Andrey Volkonsky and the Beginnings of Unofficial Music in the Soviet Union." Journal of the American Musicological Society 58, no. 1 (2005): 139–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jams.2005.58.1.139.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract This article examines the compositional history and early reception of Soviet composer Andrey Volkonsky's two earliest and most important serial compositions, Musica Stricta and Suite of Mirrors (Syuita zerkal). These two works spurred on the formation of an unofficial music culture in the Soviet Union during the Thaw of the late 1950s and 1960s. Volkonsky (b. 1933) was the first and initially the most visible of a group of young Soviets known by officialdom as the “young composers” (“molodïïye kompozitorïï”). These “young composers”—among them Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, and Edison Denisov—came of age in the years following Stalin's death in 1953. Their compositions reflected their attempts to “catch up” with the Western avant-garde following decades of musical development that had been denied them under Stalin. The first “new” technique these composers adopted was serialism, and Volkonsky's early compositions illustrate the specifically Soviet approach to the method and demonstrate the meanings it held for Soviet officials and Soviet audiences. Volkonsky's early works also force a broadening of current interpretations of postwar European and American serialism. Much of the information in the article stems from personal interviews with Volkonsky and the other leading composers and performers of the Thaw, as well as archival research conducted in Russia.
13
Golichenkov, Aleksander. "Legislation of the USSR and the RSFSR on Natural Resources and Nature Protection in 1953–1964: Main Features." ISTORIYA 12, no. 6 (104) (2021): 0. http://dx.doi.org/10.18254/s207987840016068-3.
Full textAbstract:
The article presents an analysis of the 1953—1964 legislation of the Soviet Union and the Russian SFSR (RSFSR) on natural resources and nature protection. Based on the analysis of all normative legal acts and other documents adopted during this period, the authors managed to identify the main features of its development. They used the legal reference assistance system «Consultant Plus» while working on the article. In their previous articles, the authors have already studied the main features of the Soviet and Russian legislation on natural resources and nature protection of earlier periods (of 1917—1941 and 1941—1953).
14
Golichenkov, Aleksander. "Legislation of the USSR and the RSFSR on Natural Resources and Nature Protection in 1964—1982: Main Features." ISTORIYA 13, no. 9 (119) (2022): 0. http://dx.doi.org/10.18254/s207987840023013-3.
Full textAbstract:
The article presents an analysis of the 1964—1982 legislation of the Soviet Union and the Russian SFSR (RSFSR) on natural resources and nature protection. Based on the analysis of all normative legal acts and other documents adopted during this period, the authors managed to identify the main features of its development. They used the legal reference assistance system “Consultant Plus” while working on the article. In their previous articles, the authors have already studied the main features of the Soviet and Russian legislation on natural resources and nature protection of earlier periods (of 1917—1941, 1941—1953 and 1953—1964).
15
Uldricks, Teddy J., and John Van Oudenaren. "Detente in Europe: The Soviet Union and the West since 1953." American Historical Review 99, no. 3 (June 1994): 946. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2167885.
Full text
16
Bartnicki, Adam R. "Konflikt między Gorbaczowem a Jelcynem 1987–1991." Polityka i Społeczeństwo 19, no. 4 (2021): 5–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.15584/polispol.2021.4.1.
Full textAbstract:
The history of the Gorbachev-Yeltsin relationship is the story of the collapse of the Soviet state. Perhaps no event of comparable magnitude has been more affected by the personal interactions of two politics. Gorbachev – initially Yeltsin's mentor – humiliated him. Yeltsin then took advantage of Gorbachev's reforms to stage a political comeback in 1989. The passionate dislike and animosity that developed between the two leaders made compromise difficult. In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian SFSR. Six months later, the final collapse of the Soviet Union took place.
17
Febrian, Emil Dwi. "Runtuhnya Marxisme-Leninisme di Uni Soviet dalam Teori Ashabiyah Ibnu Khaldun." Jurnal Filsafat 31, no. 1 (April 24, 2021): 74. http://dx.doi.org/10.22146/jf.49944.
Full textAbstract:
This article examines history collapse of the Soviet Union with Ibn Khaldun's ashabiyah theory. The Soviet Union was first communist nation founded in 1922 after fall of the Russian-Monarchy due to the crisis and saparatist movement in 1917. Post World War II, the Soviet Union became a center of the communist movement around the world, and advanced in industrial sector, known as a superpower nation in the 20th century beside the United States. However, the Soviet Union was declared collapsed in 1991. This article found that Ibn Khaldun's ashabiyah can explain history of the Soviet Union in three stages of state metamorphosis; formation, glory, and collapse. Ashabiyah means a bond that unites the people, but it can be positive and negative. Analysis with negative ashabiyah, concluded that the collapse of Marxism-Leninism in Soviet Union was due to the denial of this philosophical teaching to create the privileges of the Communist Party became an authoritarian regime, and considered irrelevant and opposed by society. Authoritarianism happaned because of exclusivism and cult, and could occur in non-communist nations, including Indonesia in the New Order era, this shows that it is not ideology that created of authoritarian regimes, but political practices in specific nations.
18
Garczyk, Bartłomiej. "Ethnic Structure of St Petersburg – Petrograd – Leningrad in the Period of 1703-1991." Studia Historiae Oeconomicae 31, no. 1 (December 1, 2013): 87–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/sho-2013-0006.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract This article presents a multinational and multireligious character of St. Petersburg since the founding of the city to the collapse of the Soviet Union. An ethnic and cultural mosaic was also an important feature in other centers of Russia, including Moscow and Odessa, as well as forming part of the national capital of the Russian Empire in Warsaw, Riga and Tallinn. St. Petersburg is a city but of a symbolic and unique character. It is the subject of literary impressions and creative inspiration for generations of artists. In addition, St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad was the capital of a multinational and multireligious Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and since 1918, it was the second most important city of the Soviet Union. The author’s intention is also to present the history of St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad, as seen through the prism of the history of national minorities living in it.
19
Gruzdinskaya, Victoria. "In the Space of Socialist Science: a Discussion of the Czechoslovak History Textbook (1953)." ISTORIYA 13, no. 4 (114) (2022): 0. http://dx.doi.org/10.18254/s207987840021118-8.
Full textAbstract:
This article focuses on the problem of expertise as a form of scientific communication between Soviet and Czechoslovak historians. At the end of 1953, a discussion of the first volume of the textbook “History of Czechoslovakia” (“Dějiny ČSR”) took place at the Institute of Slavic Studies. The textbook was prepared by a group of authors headed by the director of the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences J. Macek and sent to the Soviet Union for peer review. Expertise is considered in several contexts: 1) the situation in Czechoslovak historical science through the prism of the biographies of the textbook authors; 2) the specifics of the development of Soviet historiography and Bohemian studies in the early 1950s; 3) the formation of a communicative field among historians of the socialist countries.
20
Tuminez, Astrid S. "Nationalism, Ethnic Pressures, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union." Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 4 (September 2003): 81–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039703322483765.
Full textAbstract:
Nationalism and ethnic pressures contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union, but they were not the primary cause. A qualified exception to this argument is Russian elite separatist nationalism, led by Boris Yeltsin, which had a direct impact on Soviet disintegration. This article provides an overview of Soviet policy vis-à-vis nationalities, discusses the surge of nationalism and ethnic pressures in the Soviet Union in 1988–1991, and shows how ethnic unrest and separatist movements weakened the Soviet state. It also emphasizes that the demise of the Soviet Union resulted mainly from three other key factors: 1) Mikhail Gorbachev's failure to establish a viable compact between center and periphery in the early years of his rule; 2) Gorbachev's general unwillingness to use decisive force to quell ethnic and nationalist challenges; and 3) the defection of a core group of Russian elites from the Soviet regime.
21
Herf, Jeffrey. "“At War with Israel”: East Germany’s Key Role in Soviet Policy in the Middle East." Journal of Cold War Studies 16, no. 3 (July 2014): 129–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jcws_a_00450.
Full textAbstract:
The Middle East was one of the crucial battlefields of the global Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West; it was also a region in which East Germany played a salient role in the Soviet bloc’s antagonism toward Israel. From 1953, when the German Democratic Republic (GDR) signed its first trade agreement with Egypt, until 1989, when the Communist regime in the GDR collapsed, East Germany opposed the state of Israel and supported Israel’s enemies in the Arab world, providing arms, training, and other support to countries and terrorist groups that sought to destroy Israel. From the mid-1960s until 1989, but especially from 1967 to the mid-1980s, both the Soviet Union and the GDR were in an undeclared state of war against Israel.
22
Chinn, Jeff, and Steven D. Roper. "Ethnic Mobilization and Reactive Nationalism: The Case of Moldova." Nationalities Papers 23, no. 2 (June 1995): 291–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905999508408378.
Full textAbstract:
1. IntroductionUntil the October 1991 Soviet coup, Moldova, previously known as Bessarabia and the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, had known independence only briefly, having been part of the Russian Empire, Romania, or the Soviet Union for almost its entire history. As a result of shifting foreign influences and borders, Moldova, like most modern political entities, has a multiethnic population. The conflicting perspectives and demands of Moldova's different ethnic groups underlie many of today's controversies.
23
Williams, Beryl, and John Keep. "Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991." Russian Review 56, no. 1 (January 1997): 143. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/131505.
Full text
24
Williames, Lee. "Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union 1945–1991." History: Reviews of New Books 24, no. 3 (April 1996): 129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03612759.1996.9951322.
Full text
25
Legvold, Robert, and John Keep. "Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991." Foreign Affairs 75, no. 4 (1996): 154. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20047704.
Full text
26
Richter, James, and John L. H. Keep. "Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union 1945-1991." American Historical Review 102, no. 1 (February 1997): 144. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2171344.
Full text
27
Kramer, Mark. "The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 1)." Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 4 (September 2003): 178–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039703322483783.
Full textAbstract:
The largely peaceful collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 reflected the profound changes that Mikhail Gorbachev had carried out in Soviet foreign policy. Successful though the process was in Eastern Europe, it had destabilizing repercussions within the Soviet Union. The effects were both direct and indirect. The first part of this two-part article looks at Gorbachev's policy toward Eastern Europe, the collapse of Communism in the region, and the direct “spillover” from Eastern Europe into the Soviet Union. The second part of the article, to be published in the next issue of the journal, discusses the indirect spillover into the Soviet Union and the fierce debate that emerged within the Soviet political elite about the “loss” of the Eastern bloc—a debate that helped spur the leaders of the attempted hardline coup d'état in August 1991.
28
SEVİNDİ, Koray. "IDEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN SOVIET ANIMATION CINEMA." TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF DESIGN ART AND COMMUNICATION 11, no. 2 (April 1, 2021): 594–605. http://dx.doi.org/10.7456/11102100/017.
Full textAbstract:
In this study, the Soviet animation cinema's ideological discourses, which showed the consequences and reflections of the political ideology of the era, were examined. In line with the findings, it was considered that these animated films constitute a kind of cultural memory that exhibits the political history and social culture of the Soviets. The article's ideological discourse analysis method was applied by considering Teun A. van Dijk's study titled Ideological Discourse Analysis. As part of this research, because ideological discourses were analyzed, only short films with propaganda content were regarded among Soviet animations, and the scope of the study was restricted. Furthermore, the date range taken about the films was the term of Soyuzmultfilm, the official animation studio of the Soviet Union. The films created by the studio, which began its actions in 1936 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, were taken into account. The conclusions of discourse analysis were evaluated according to the headings 'self-identity', 'activity', 'goal', 'norm and value', 'position and relation' and 'resource' mentioned in the article Ideological Discourse Analysis, and the ideological discourses in Soviet animated cinema were analyzed.
29
Tudda, Chris. "“Reenacting the Story of Tantalus”: Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Failed Rhetoric of Liberation." Journal of Cold War Studies 7, no. 4 (October 2005): 3–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/1520397055012479.
Full textAbstract:
This article examines Dwight Eisenhower's and John Foster Dulles's publicly declared goal to achieve the “liberation” of Eastern Europe, a goal that they claimed would replace the Truman administration's “passive” containment policy.But the evidence shows that Eisenhower and Dulles were unwilling to risk war with the Soviet Union and believed that liberation, if actually pursued, would induce the Soviet Union to react violently to perceived threats in Eastern Europe. Hence, in top-secret meetings and conversations, Eisenhower and Dulles rejected military liberation, despite their public pronouncements. Instead, they secretly pursued a tricky, risky, and long-term strategy of radio broadcasts and covert action designed to erode, rather than overthrow, Soviet power in Eastern Europe. In public, they continued to embrace liberation policy even when confronted with testimony from U.S. allies that the rhetorical diplomacy of liberation had not worked. This reliance on rhetoric failed to deter the Soviet Union from quashing rebellions in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956. If anything, the Eisenhower administration's rhetorical liberation policy may have encouraged, at least to some degree, these revolts.
30
Kramer, Mark. "The Early Post-Stalin Succession Struggle and Upheavals in East-Central Europe: Internal-External Linkages in Soviet Policy Making (Part 3)." Journal of Cold War Studies 1, no. 3 (September 1999): 3–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039799316976805.
Full textAbstract:
The East German uprising and the downfall of Lavrentii Beria had profound short- and long-term effects on Soviet policy toward Germany and on the political configuration of the Eastern bloc. This article, the final segment of a three-part analysis of Soviet—East European relations in the early post-Stalin era, discusses the changes in the Soviet bloc at some length. It then ties together the three parts of the analysis by exploring the theoretical implications of the linkages between internal and external events in the Soviet Union and East-Central Europe in 1953, drawing on recent theoretical literature about the connection between domestic and international politics.
31
SAYADYAN, HOVIK Y., and RAFAEL MORENO-SANCHEZ. "Forest policies, management and conservation in Soviet (1920–1991) and post-Soviet (1991–2005) Armenia." Environmental Conservation 33, no. 1 (March 2006): 60–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0376892906002852.
Full textAbstract:
The extent and condition of forest ecosystems in Armenia have decreased drastically since the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This decline is not only a consequence of the recent history of the area, but also the result of decades of forest policies, management and forest-use practices. To reverse the negative trends, it is important for stakeholders, scientists, resource managers and policy makers (in Armenia and abroad) to understand the influential factors in the decline, yet such information is scarce, highly fragmented, written in Armenian or Russian, and inaccessible to the international community. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge base of the international community by presenting and contrasting the most important issues and processes that have affected forest cover in Armenia during the USSR (1920–1991) and independence periods (1991–to date). For each period, the legal framework, the forest inventory practices, forest use, management and conservation practices, the forestry education, and the perception of the forests by forest communities and society at large are presented and discussed. Except for the social perception of the forests, the most relevant aspects of these issues have scarcely changed from one period to the next. There is a need to address the most pressing problems and improve the current conditions of the forests and the forestry sector in Armenia.
32
Stefano, Carolina de. "An old Soviet response and a revolutionary context: Dealing with the national question in the committees of the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies (1989–1991)." Journal of Eurasian Studies 11, no. 1 (January 2020): 53–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1879366520904837.
Full textAbstract:
The article deals with the parliamentary representation of ethnic/national interests and demands in the crisis years between 1989 and 1991, culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union. It focuses primarily on the proliferation of committees dealing with ethnonational questions after the creation of the USSR Congress of People’s Deputies, a parliamentary body that existed from 1989 until 1991. The article shows that the new parliamentary architecture was not only the inevitable consequence of social and national mobilization but also an expression of the Union center’s response to the ongoing national crisis. Building mostly upon unpublished archival material, the article focuses on debates in 1989–1991 within the Committee of Nationalities Affairs and Interethnic Issues of the USSR Supreme Soviet. In so doing, it identifies some of the dilemmas the committee faced and some of the changes in its functioning brought about glasnost and perestroika. The article makes two key contributions. First, it helps to shed much-needed light on Soviet nationalities policy during perestroika. Second, the analysis of debates internal to parliamentary committees in those critical years contributes to the existing literature on Soviet and Russian parliamentarism and institutional transformation during the transition from the USSR to the Russian Federation.
33
IPATOV, ALEXEY. "RELIGIOUS POLICY OF THE SOVIET LEADERSHIP IN 1941-1953 ON THE EXAMPLE OF LENINGRAD." Культурный код, no. 2022-4 (2022): 139–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.36945/2658-3852-2022-4-139-150.
Full textAbstract:
This article is a review of a monograph by I. V. Petrov, a historian from St. Petersburg, a specialist in church history of the XX century. It is devoted to the insufficiently researched problem of the interrelationships between the Leningrad confessions in 1941-1953 and the policy of the Soviet government in relation to them. The author traces the vicissitudes of survival of Orthodox citizens of besieged Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War and changes in their relationship with the authorities after the end of the war and before the death of I. V. Stalin in 1953. A separate chapter contains an analysis of the existence of the Jewish, Catholic and Muslim communities in the time period indicated in the title. This work is intended to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the situation of the Church and believers in the Soviet Union in a difficult, full of collisions period of national history, which has traditionally not been given due attention in historiography.
34
Kochetkova, Elena A. "NOTIONS OF SIBERIA’S INDUSTRIAL FORESTS AMONG SPECIALISTS IN THE SOVIET UNION, LATE 1940s–1991." Ural Historical Journal 74, no. 1 (2022): 173–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.30759/1728-9718-2022-1(74)-173-180.
Full textAbstract:
This article examines the notions of Siberia’s industrial forests among Soviet specialists in the context of colonization of Eastern regions of the USSR from the late 1940s to the late 1980s. It pays a particular attention to how specialists perceived forests of Eastern virgin lands and what were their expectations about industrial forest exploitation and wood harvesting. The analysis is based upon professional publications about the tension between so called “old” (mainly North-West and the Urals) and “new” (the Siberian region) forests. The author raises the question of the meaning that Soviet specialists placed on the newly colonized forests within the industrial development. The article demonstrates that foresters replicated the state rhetoric about “virgin” lands seeing the new technologies of colonization as a possibility for solving the problem of resource supply in the industry which became visible in the period under study. The development of forest resources and timber industry construction with the help of the latest technologies have been among the most important tasks set by specialists since the late 1940s. Many specialists hoped to start a new page in forest exploitation via the rational and complex, as they called it, approach to wood harvesting and processing. This was to minimize the risks and losses associated with forest exploitation in old industrial areas. However, the lack of funding and infrastructural impediments including difficult access to new forest reserves complicated the colonization drive and was perceived by specialists as a transfer of old problems (problems typical for the ‘old’ forests) to ‘new’ regions. In the course of colonization during the period between the late 1940s and 1980s professional enthusiasm of earlier decades changed to disappointment about the practice of forest colonization in the Soviet Eastern lands.
35
Slider, Darrell. "The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy. By Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001. 768p. $55.00 cloth, $29.95 paper." American Political Science Review 96, no. 4 (December 2002): 864–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003055402870460.
Full textAbstract:
The fate of Russia's economic and political reforms is the subject of this interpretative history of the last years of the Soviet Union and the Yeltsin period, The book provides a useful, if controversial, introduction to the events of this crucial period in Russian political development, from 1990 to 1999. Special attention is given to the events surrounding important turning points in Russian history; there are particularly detailed treatments of the August 1991 coup, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Boris Yeltsin's forcible disbanding of the parliament in October 1993. In the end, though, the large number of events the authors seek to analyze is a liability because it tends to detract from and dilute the main argument.
36
Abdullahzade, Cavid. "The Status of International Treaties in the Legal System of Azerbaijan." Review of Central and East European Law 32, no. 2 (2007): 233–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/092598807x195188.
Full textAbstract:
AbstractAs part of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Azerbaijan Republic ended its protracted existence as one of the fifteen members of the Soviet Union and became an independent state. As a result, on 30 August 1991, she became a full subject of international law. Currently, Azerbaijan is a party to a number of international treaties, virtually all major human rights treaties registered with the UN Secretary-General, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as a number of related Council of Europe human rights agreements.A tendency towards internationalization and a general 'opening' to international law can also be seen in the Azeri Constitution, which was adopted by public referendum on 12 November 1995. Like many other former Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan, in its 1995 Constitution, has rejected the traditional Soviet dualist approach of the implementation of international law in the domestic legal system and has established a monist system within the context of a relationship between national and international law. This article discusses these changes in the Azeri attitude towards international law, in particular the status of international treaties, with special reference to those problems stemming from the implementation of international treaties in the domestic legal system of Azerbaijan.
37
Bandey, Aijaz A., and Farooq Ahmad Rather. "Socio-Economic and Political Motivations of Russian Out-Migration from Central Asia." Journal of Eurasian Studies 4, no. 2 (July 2013): 146–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euras.2013.03.004.
Full textAbstract:
The unexpected fall of Soviet Union left ethnic Russians, outside Russia with many questions and concerns. Many of them emigrated to Russia from the erstwhile Soviet Union, for better conditions there. The disintegration of Soviet Union – a state created on the ideology of Communism was one of the reasons, apart from economic, political, socio-cultural, reasons besides the failure of Communism to keep the Soviet Union together were the main causes of Russian out-migration from Central Asia. The out-migration of Russians from Central Asia to Russia began in the 1970s as internal labour migration shifted in the wake of better job opportunities. It accelerated tremendously after 1991, and touched its highest mark in 1994, as a response to the relative economic prosperity of Russia at that time. Thus the improved standard of living in Russia and the desire to return to their cultural homeland were some major issues that concerned people to shift to Russia.
38
Kaasik, Peeter. "Kuulujuttudest Nõukogude Eestis partei ja julgeoleku meelsusaruannete põhjal 1944–1953 [Abstract: On rumours described in Communist Party and state security organ reports in Soviet Estonia in 1944–1953]." Ajalooline Ajakiri. The Estonian Historical Journal, no. 1 (November 18, 2018): 67–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/aa.2018.1.03.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract: On rumours described in Communist Party and state security organ reports in Soviet Estonia in 1944–1953
The Soviet Union was characterised by total control over the expressions of opinion of its citizens. For this reason, public opinion was to a great extent expressed as rumours. The Soviet regime, in turn, treated rumours as anti-Soviet phenomena, on the one hand, because they contradicted official propaganda, and on the other hand because they also very directly hindered the implementation of Sovietisation and the ability of agitators to explain the advantages of the new regime. Thus rumours had to be combatted.
This article does not examine rumours in Soviet society as a broader, separate phenomenon, rather it analyses how they were reflected in the period after the Second World War in state security organ and Communist Party reports, and how the effects and extent of the rumours of that time can be assessed.
The reports of Communist Party organisers at the rural municipality level are used first and foremost in this article. These organisers were in close personal contact with rumours or heard them from their confidants. The state security organs used their network of secret agents to monitor people’s attitudes (including gathering rumours). Reports from local departments to the ESSR People’s Commissariat (Ministry as of 1946) for State Security, and reports from the latter to Moscow have also been used for this article. The attitude reports did not deal separately with gathering and analysing rumours, but rumours were presented together with other negative manifestations.
The article focuses on four different categories of rumours for the purpose of illustration, assessing their effect primarily through the viewpoint of the Soviet regime. The first category comprises rumours that accompanied Soviet economic reforms. The article highlights the monetary reform of 1947 how alongside a short-lived period of panic buying, this reform also led to deepening mistrust of the entire Soviet economic model, including the longevity of the new rouble currency. The second category comprises rumours based on fear, in other words, rumours of an impending mass deportation that gripped people with fear for years. In direct connection with this, the Eighth Plenum of the Estonian Communist Party Central Committee in 1950, which was the culmination of the campaign to expose bourgeois nationalists, is also presented as an example. Rumours emanating from the Plenum made the concept of the ‘enemy of the people’ even more abstract and obscure. This all ultimately started hindering Sovietisation more broadly, because people awaited another deportation for years with their suitcases packed. The third category is that of rumours associated with hope, in other words, the persistent rumours of the imminent outbreak of war and Estonia’s liberation in connection with that war. The hope that the Soviet regime would prove to be a ‘temporary disruption’ was particularly negative in the eyes of the authorities. The disruptive effect of such rumours on the implementation of collectivisation was highlighted in the reports. The fourth category of rumours was somewhat exceptional, namely rumours directly fabricated by the state, with an aim to firmly establish the image of the enemy. The anti-Semitic campaign of 1953 is presented as an illustration of this category. The final example is an extraordinary event that lays claim to universality, in other words, the death of Jossif Stalin in 1953. It marked the end of an era and it remained unsurpassed in the Soviet Union in terms of the variety of rumours connected to it.
Summing up what was presented in the attitude reports, regardless of their at times rather ideologised content and their avoidance of giving the prevailing situation a general assessment (which was expressed by the fact that anti-Soviet manifestations were as a rule presented as isolated incidents), these reports are very important sources for comprehending the
fears and expectations of the inhabitants of Soviet Estonia of that time. Different rumours also genuinely illustrate the difficulties that the Soviet regime had to face in carrying out Sovietisation.
39
Lynch, Allen. "John Van Oudenaren. Detente in Europe: The Soviet Union and the West Since 1953. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. xi, 490 pp. $60/29.95." Russian History 20, no. 4 (January 1, 1993): 405–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/187633193x01026.
Full text
40
Yensenov, Kanat, Ganiy Karassayev, Bekmurat Naimanbayev, Zhanat Bakirova, and Gulfira Otepova. "Stalinist Repression in the Soviet Union and the history of the Akmola women's camp in Kazakhstan (1937-1953)." Scientific Herald of Uzhhorod University Series Physics, no. 55 (January 21, 2024): 537–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.54919/physics/55.2024.53nd7.
Full textAbstract:
Relevance. During the Soviet Union, the administrative and command group headed by I.V. Stalin established a totalitarian regime in society. The whole life of society was under control. Those who resisted were repressed, persecuted, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. In addition, Soviet Union created the Gulag system of camps. Some of them were located on the territory of Kazakhstan. The center was Karlag, located on the territory of Karaganda region. Purpose. One of its units was called the women's camp of traitors who sold their homeland in Akmola (ALJIR), which was called Point 26. This camp operated from 1937 to 1953. Thousands of innocent women were imprisoned there for a period of 3-8 years. In this camp, women of state and public figures known to the Soviet Union and well-known to Kazakhstan were detained. It was one of the most tragic pages in the history of mankind. Methodology. This topic has not been fully studied yet. Therefore, the authors consider it appropriate to provide information in the article on the basis of archival documents, memoirs and scientific research about the women's camp, which was previously located on the territory of Akmola region in Kazakhstan. In order to study the history of these repressions, it is necessary to take a comprehensive approach from a theoretical and methodological point of view. Conclusions. The history of the Akmola women's camp in Kazakhstan is a terrible period in the history of the world. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare joint scientific projects, write research papers and translate them into several languages of the world, make documentaries, show them to the people of the world, and present them.
41
Mironov, Boris N. "Disintegration of the USSR in Historiography: Collapse or Dissolution." Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History 66, no. 1 (2021): 132–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu02.2021.108.
Full textAbstract:
Over the period of 30 years various scientists representing different fields have been studying disintegration of the USSR with unflagging interest. As of August 1, 2020, more than 300 books, 3000 articles, and 20 dissertations have been written in Russia alone. Generalization and critical analysis of this literature requires a monograph. But this task is so complex that for the time being the case is limited to historiographical articles. The purpose of this article is to identify the most popular points of view expressed by well-known experts on the problem of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The analysis enables to draw the following conclusions. The existing explanations can be divided into two large groups. The first one includes works whose authors consider disintegration as the product of a combination of random circumstances, external causes, and mistakes of party and Soviet leaders, and therefore focus first on the study of the role of subjective and external factors, and, second, on the short period of time, 1985–1991, immediately preceding the disintegration. The second group includes works whose authors consider disintegration as a natural result of long-developed processes, search for its historical background, study trends in the development of the Soviet Union and the Union republics, and look at the disintegration systemically and comprehensively. In other words, the former consider disintegration to be a random phenomenon generated mainly by the events of 1985–1991, while the latter consider it to be a natural phenomenon with deep historical, economic, political, cultural, and social prerequisites and causes.
42
T., Tishkina, and Tishkina K. "EXHIBITIONS IN BARNAUL DEDICATED TO THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORMATION OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS." Preservation and study of the cultural heritage of the Altai Territory 29 (2023): 342–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.14258/2411-1503.2023.29.52.
Full textAbstract:
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics existed from December 30, 1922 to December 26, 1991. During this period of time, significant successes were achieved in industry, agriculture, science and culture, and a victory was won over the Fascist conquerors was won in 1945. To the 100th anniversary of the formation of the USSR in Barnaul, there were exhibitions: “Soviet Porcelain” and “The Country of the Soviets” (the State Art Museum of the Altai Territory); “The USSR in the Mirror of Art” (exhibition hall of “Museum “City”); “Art that has become History” (“Shchetinins Art Gallery”); “Greetings from the USSR” (Altai State Museum of Local Lore). The exhibitions displayed photos, works of fine and decorative art, and items of material culture created in the 1920s-1980s. The purpose of the exhibitions is to expand visitors’ knowledge of the history of Russia, form a positive image of the USSR in the minds of the younger generation and improve the patriotic mood of the citizens.
43
Zlotnik, Marc. "Yeltsin and Gorbachev: The Politics of Confrontation." Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2003): 128–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039703320996740.
Full textAbstract:
The confrontation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin was a key factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Perhaps no event of comparable magnitude has been more affected by the personal interactions of two men. The history of the Gorbachev-Yeltsin relationship during the ªnal years of the USSR is largely the story of the collapse of the Soviet state. The passionate dislike and animosity that developed between the two leaders made compromise difªcult and accelerated the collapse of the union. Gorbachev's initial unwillingness to deal seriously with the new Russian leader probably did more to contribute to the disintegration of the Soviet Union than did Yeltsin's bluster and thirst for revenge. It was only when the tables were turned after the failed coup of August 1991, and when Yeltsin clearly had gained control of the situation, that he allowed his intense dislike of Gorbachev to drive his actions.
44
Anderson, Barbara A., and John H. Romani. "Changing Social Priorities and the Increased Salience of the Economy in Estonia." Nationalities Papers 33, no. 3 (September 2005): 303–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905990500193170.
Full textAbstract:
Since 1991, throughout the former Soviet Union marketization has increased, and much of the social safety net has disappeared. Compared with other former Soviet republics, Estonia has fared well. In this paper, we examine the salience and seriousness of various social issues for groups in Estonia in 1996, and we compare the 1996 results with those of a survey that took place in Estonia in 1991 shortly before the coup. We also reflect on the findings in light of opportunities and challenges for Estonia.
45
Elie, Marc. "Late Soviet Responses to Disasters, 1989-1991: A New Approach to Crisis Management or the Acme of Soviet Technocratic Thinking?" Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 40, no. 2 (2013): 214–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18763324-04002004.
Full textAbstract:
Under Gorbachev, the Soviet government proved unable to face the dismantling tendencies that led ultimately to the collapse of the Soviet Union as a political regime and a territorial state—the awakening of nationalism, the loss of state legitimacy, ecological disaster, and financial crisis, to name only a few. This article reveals that the Soviet government was acutely aware of these growing risks and of the need to address them in a new way. It analyzes how emergency management developed in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s and draws attention to the activity of the State Commission for Emergency Situations (GKChS), a little-known, but influential governmental agency created in July 1989 to respond to the disasters plaguing the country, be they industrial, natural, ecological, or social.
46
Katchanovski, Ivan. "Regional Political Divisions in Ukraine in 1991–2006." Nationalities Papers 34, no. 5 (November 2006): 507–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905990600952939.
Full textAbstract:
This article examines determinants of persistent regional political cleavages in post-Communist Ukraine. The question is how significant the role of culture is compared to ethnic, economic, and religious factors in the regional divisions. This study employs correlation, factor, and regression analyses of regional support for the Communist/pro-Russian parties and presidential candidates and pro-nationalist/pro-independence parties and candidates in all national elections held from 1991 to 2006, the vote for the preservation of the Soviet Union in the March 1991 referendum, and the vote for the independence of Ukraine in the December 1991 referendum. This study shows that the pattern of these regional differences remained relatively stable from 1991 to 2006. Historical experience has a major effect on regional electoral behavior in post-Communist Ukraine. The legacy of Austro-Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak rule is positively associated with the pro-nationalist and pro-independence vote; the same historical legacy has a negative effect on support for pro-Communist and pro-Russian parties and presidential candidates and on the vote for the preservation of the Soviet Union.
47
Zubkova, Elena Yu. "UGRA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LATE SOVIET MODERNIZATION: REGIONAL HISTORY IN THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE." Ural Historical Journal 82, no. 1 (2024): 72–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.30759/1728-9718-2024-1(82)-72-81.
Full textAbstract:
The formation of Russia’s regional structure involves the combination of two main perspectives — regional and national. It is not a matter of “overlaying” one chronological and event framework on another, but of identifying the degree of correlation of regional history with the national processes in which the subjectivity of the region is reflected and formed. The history of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Ugra is one of the significant examples of such a combination of research perspectives. The 1953–1991 period occupies a special place in the history of Ugra — from the thaw to perestroika. In a very short time by historical standards, the region has experienced a qualitative turn in its development. The oil factor played a dominant role in the process of establishing the subjectivity of Ugra as a region, being at the same time a resource for economic development, a locomotive of modernization and a catalyst for sociocultural changes. As a result of intensive industrial development in the 1960–1980s the place of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Russia’s regional structure has changed radically: from agrarian and unpromising it turned into industrial and intensively progressive; the subsidized region became a donor region, providing the Soviet Union with solutions of not only economic, but also geopolitical challenges. The case of Ugra gives an opportunity to focus on the Soviet specificity of modernization of territories of new industrial development. The region’s modernization strategy has been both progress and challenge, radically changing the natural and social environment of the region. The consequences of these transformations — regardless of the mark of their retrospective assessment — have been long-lasting and influence the life in Ugra to this day.
48
Knight, Amy. "The KGB, Perestroika, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Journal of Cold War Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2003): 67–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/152039703320996722.
Full textAbstract:
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.
49
Mikheev, Mikhail V. "COAL BASINS OF THE USSR IN THE SYSTEM OF INTERREGIONAL FREIGHT TRAFFIC, 1940–1953." Ural Historical Journal 82, no. 1 (2024): 62–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.30759/1728-9718-2024-1(82)-62-71.
Full textAbstract:
The article introduces into scientific circulation the materials of the USSR transport statistics on the dynamics of coal cargoes transportation by rail in the late 1940s — early 1950s. On the basis of the identified sources, it establishes the importance and place in the system of interregional freight traffic for the five largest coal basins of the Soviet Union: Donetsk, Near Moscow, Karaganda, Kuznetsk and Pechora. The evolution of transportation is considered in the context of political and economic factors of both external and internal nature. In particular, the case of indirect economic damage caused to the eastern regions of the USSR by the Great Patriotic War is shown on the example of transport links between the Urals and Siberia. In the context of interregional freight transportation, an episode of territorial contradictions of the CPSU Sverdlovsk and Leningrad regional committees regarding the development of coal deposits in the Polar Urals is considered. It is noted that the economic effect of the historical inertia of these events can be traced up to the present time, and is expressed both in the imbalance of the latitudinal and meridional directions of transport routes, and the uneven congestion of the railway network of modern Russia. The published material demonstrates the prospects of using the USSR transport statistics for the implementation of comprehensive historical and economic zoning of the Soviet Union, subject to similar studies in relation to other chronological periods and other categories of cargo in the future. The article is supplemented with cartographic materials illustrating the considered changes in the transportation of coal cargoes across the territory of the USSR graphically.
50
Kramer, Mark. "The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 3)." Journal of Cold War Studies 7, no. 1 (January 2005): 3–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/1520397053326185.
Full textAbstract:
This is the concluding part of a three-part article that discusses the transformation of Soviet-East European relations in the late 1980s and the impact of the sweeping changes in Eastern Europe on the Soviet Union. This final segment is divided into two main parts: First, it provides an extended analysis of the bitter public debate that erupted in the Soviet Union in 1990 and 1991 about the “loss” of Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The debate roiled the Soviet political system and fueled the hardline backlash against Mikhail Gorbachev. Second, this part of the article offers a concluding section that highlights the theoretical implications of the article as a whole. The article, as the conclusion shows, sheds light on recent literature concerning the diffusion of political innovations and the external context of democratization and political change.