Modern History MA Option: Semester 2

Gorbachev and the Break-Up of the USSR, 1985-1991

Tutor: Edward Acton

Credit Value: 20M

Teaching Arrangements: one seminar of 2 hours per week, individual essay consultation

Timetable Slot: By arrangement

Assessment Mode: Extended Essay

Unit Description:

This unit offers a study of the supreme drama of later twentieth-century European history: the revolution unleashed by Gorbachev's attempt to reform the Soviet Union.

We look at the broad international context within which the drama unfolded, and the breath-taking steps which Gorbachev took to break diplomatic deadlock, including his willingness to see the eastern European satellites sever their allegiance to the USSR. Domestically, we analyse why a regime which ten years earlier had seemed to most observers destined to last indefinitely was so rapidly destabilised. We examine the political struggle that accompanied perestroika, Gorbachev's 'shadow boxing' with conservative opponents, and his momentous and prolonged duel with Yeltsin. We explore his government's search for an economic panacea, the erosion of faith in the command economy and central planning, and the disastrous depression which set in. We trace the manner in which official Soviet ideology unravelled under the impact of glasnost' and public debate, and consider elements of the cultural explosion triggered. Particular attention is focused on the nature of the nationalist movements which ripped apart the Soviet system; the failure of attempts to mobilise alternative political and social constituencies; the contrasting trajectories traced by nationalism in the Baltic, Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Central Asia; and the paradoxes of Russian nationalism.

The wealth of scholarly analyses, contemporary commentary, memoir literature and primary material (much of it in translation) now makes possible an in-depth study both of overarching themes and of specific case-studies.

Introductory reading:

Acton E D J, Russia: The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy (1995)
Brown A, The Gorbachev Factor (1996)
Gorbachev M S, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (1987)
Suny R, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (1998)
White S, Gorbachev and After (1992)

SEMINARS

1. The era of stagnation
Account for the mounting problems facing the Soviet regime in the decade before 1985 and pinpoint the gravest among them.

2. Gorbachev and the end of the Cold War
'He was proactive rather than being compelled by the West to act; the policy he pursued was coherent; and he was in large measure successful.' How far do you agree with this verdict on Gorbachev's foreign policy, 1985-91?

3. Perestroika, the economy and the quality of life - I
'It was not that Gorbachev mishandled economic reform between 1985 and 1991: successful reform of the Soviet economy was impossible.' How far do you agree?

4. Perestroika, the economy and the quality of life - II
Explain why the Soviet economy deteriorated so steeply during the Gorbachev years and assess the impact on the quality of life of different social strata.

5. Glasnost' and cultural revolution
Why did Marxist-Leninist ideology so rapidly lose credibility during the period of glasnost' ?

6. Democratization
Explain why and along what fault lines Gorbachev's political reforms created/revealed divisions within the CPSU.

7. Mobilization of opposition
Why, during the Gorbachev years, did attempts to mobilise opposition based on all-union social and ideological constituencies enjoy so much less success than those based on nationalism?

8. Case studies in minority nationalism: Lithuanian, Georgian, Ukrainian
Account for the differences between the trajectories traced by the Lithuanian, Georgian and Ukrainian nationalist movements during the Gorbachev years.

9. The case of Russian nationalism
Identify and account for what was distinctive about Russian nationalism in the Gorbachev years.

10. The Break-up of the USSR
Why did the August coup fail and how far was it responsible for the break-up of the USSR?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL

*Brown A, The Gorbachev Factor (1996)
*Galeotti M, Gorbachev and his Revolution (1995)
*Gorbachev M S, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (1987)
*Suny R, Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1993)
*White S, Gorbachev and After (1992)

Acton E 'The Parting of Ways: Comparing the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and 1991', in Donald M & Rees T (eds), Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe (2001)
Boldin V I, Ten Years that Shook the World. The Gorbachev Era as witnessed by his Chief of Staff (1994)
Brumberg A (ed), Chronicle of a revolution: A Western-Soviet Inquiry Into Perestroika (1990)
Chernyaev A S, My Six Years with Gorbachev (2000)
Daniels R V, The End of the Communist Revolution (1993)
D'Agostino A, Gorbachev's Revolution (1998)
Federal Institute for Soviet and International Studies, The Soviet Union, 1987-1989. Perestroika in Crisis? (1990)
Hosking G, The Awakening of the Soviet Union (1990)
Hosking G, A History of the Soviet Union (1994)
Kagarlitsky B, The Disintegration of the Monolith (1992)
Kaiser R G, Why Gorbachev Happened. His Triumphs and His Failures (1991)
Lane D, Soviet Society Under Perestroika (1992)
Malia M, The Soviet Tragedy. A History of Socialism in Russia (1994)
McCauley M (ed), Gorbachev and Perestroika (1990)
Merridale C & Ward C (eds), Perestroika. The Historical Perspective (1991)
Miller J H Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of Soviet power (1993)
Periodical: Current Digest of the Soviet Press
Pipes R, Communism: The Vanished Spectre (1994)
Read C, The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (2001)
Roxburgh A, The Second Russian Revolution (1991)
Sakwa R, Gorbachev and his Reforms, 1985-1990 (1990)
Sakwa R, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 (1999) ch 10
Suny R, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (1998)
Walker M, The Waking Giant: Gorbachev's Russia (1986)

1. THE ERA OF STAGNATION

*Bialer S, The Soviet Paradox. External Expansion, Internal Decline, chs 3-6 (1986)
*Goldman M I, USSR in Crisis. The Failure of an Economic System (c1983)
*Lewin M The Gorbachev Phenomenon. A Historical Interpretation (1989)
*Zaslavskaia T 'The Novosibirsk Report', Survey 28 (1984), pp. 83-108

Bloomfield J (ed), The Soviet Revolution (1989), part I
Brown A (ed), Political Leadership in the Soviet Union (1989)
Brown A & Kaser M (eds), Soviet Policy for the 1980s (1982)
Cohen S F, 'The Friends and Foe of Change': Slavic Review 38 (1979)
Frankland M, Sixth Continent. Russia and Mikhail Gorbachev
Hoffman E & Laird R eds, The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era
Lampert N, Whistleblowing in the Soviet Union. Complaints and Abuses under State Socialism (1985)
Lane D, 'The roots of political reform: the changing social structure of the USSR', in C Merridale & C Ward (eds), Perestroika. The Historical Perspective (1991)
McCauley M (ed), The Soviet Union after Brezhnev (1983)
Medvedev Zh, Andropov (1983)
Silver B D, 'Political beliefs of the Soviet citizen: Sources of support for regime norms', in J R Millar (ed), Politics, Work and Daily Life in the USSR (1987)
Silver B D, 'Soviet Citizen Participation on the Eve of Democratization', American Political Science Review 84 (1990), pp. 821-47
Steele J & Abraham E, Andropov in Power (1983)
Voslensky M, Nomenklatura. An Anatomy of the Soviet Ruling Class (1984)

(a) Foreign Policy

Alford J (ed), The Soviet Union: Security Policies and Constraints (1985), esp essays 1 & 4
Bialer S (ed), The Domestic Context of Soviet Foreign Policy (1981)
Bialer S, The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline (1986)
Crummey R O (ed), Reform in Russia and the USSR (1989) (articles on Khrushchev's foreign policy by Taubman W, Yanov A, Minde G F & Hennessey M)
Donaldson R H, Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II (1981), esp chs 4-8
Edmonds R, Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years (1983)
Halliday F, The Making of the Second Cold War (1983)
Holloway D, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (1983)
Hough J, The Struggle for the Third World, ch 9
Hutchings R L, Soviet-East European Relations: Consolidation and Conflict, 1968-80 (1983)
Jacobsen C J (ed), The Soviet Defence Enigma (1987), esp. articles on the defence burden by Nove A and Jones D R
Jones R A The Soviet Concept of 'Limited Sovereignty' from Lenin to Gorbachev. The Brezhnev Doctrine, ch 9, on Afghanistan
Laird R F & Hoffmann E P (eds), Soviet Foreign Policy in a Changing World, esp. 'Soviet geopolitical momentum: myth or menace?', pp. 701-12
Nogee J L & Donaldson R H, Soviet Foreign Policy Since World War II (1981), esp chs 4-8
Steele J, The Limits of Soviet Power. The Kremlin's Foreign Policy (1983)

(b) The Economy

Bergson A, Productivity and the Social System: The USSR and the West (1978)
Brown A & Kaser M, The Soviet Union Since the Fall of Khrushchev, esp article by M Kaser (1975)
Clarke R A, 'Soviet Agricultural Reforms since Khrushchev', Soviet Studies XX (1969), pp. 159-78
Gregory P & Stuart R, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance
Grossman G, 'The "Second Economy" of the USSR', Problems of Communism 26, Sept/Oct (1977), pp. 25-40
Millar J R, 'Post-Stalin Agriculture', in S Cohen et al eds, The Soviet Union Since Stalin
Nove A The Soviet Economic System
Shaffer H G, ed, Soviet Agriculture. An Assessment of Its Contribution to Economic Development (1977)
Simis K, 'Government and Shadow Economy in the Soviet Union', Soviet Studies XXXIV (1984), pp. 528-43
Simis S M, USSR: Secrets of a Corrupt Society (1982)
Yanov A, The Drama of the Soviet 1960s: A Lost Reform (1984)

(c) Dissent

Acton E 'Revolutionaries and Dissidents' in Jennings J & Kemp-Welch A (eds), Intellectuals and Politics from the Dreyfus Affair to Salman Rushdie (1997)
Alekseeva L, Soviet Dissent. Contemporary Movements for National, Religious and Human Rights (1985)
Barghoorn F C, 'Factional, Sectoral and Subversive Opposition in Soviet Politics', in Dahl R A (ed), Regimes and Oppositions (1973), 39-40, 70-82
Barghoorn F C, 'The Post-Khrushchev Campaign to Suppress Dissent: Perspectives, Strategies, and Techniques of Repression', in Tokes (ed), Dissent in the USSR (1975)
Biddulph H L, 'Protest Strategies of the Soviet Intellectual Opposition', in Tokes (ed), Dissent in the USSR
Rubinstein J, Soviet Dissidents. Their Struggle for Human Rights (1985)
Feifer G, ' No Protest: the Case of the Passive Minority', in Tokes (ed), Dissent in the USSR (1975), pp. 418-37
Gerstenmaier C I, 'Dissidents', in Veen H J (ed), From Brezhnev to Gorbachev: Domestic Affairs and Soviet Foreign Policy (1987), pp. 172-7
Grigorenko P, Memoirs (1983)
Hayward M, Writers in Russia, 1917-78 (1983)
Kagarlitsky B, The Thinking Reed: Intellectuals and the Soviet State (1988)
Medvedev R, On Soviet Dissent (1980)
Reddaway P, 'The Development of Dissent and Opposition', in A Brown & M Kaser (eds), The Soviet Union Since the Fall of Khrushchev (1975)
Reddaway P (ed), Uncensored Russia: The Human Rights Movement in the Soviet Union (1982)
Reddaway P, 'Dissent in the USSR', Problems of Communism 32 (1983) no.6, pp.1-15
Rothberg A, The Heirs of Stalin: Dissidence and the Soviet Regime, 1953- 1970 (1972)
Shatz M S, Soviet Dissent in Historical Perspective (1980)
Shtromas A, 'Dissent and Political Change in the Soviet Union', in Hoffmann E P and Laird R F (eds), The Soviet Polity in the Modern Era (1984), pp. 717-24
Spechler D R, Permitted Dissent in the USSR: 'Novy mir' and the Soviet Regime (1982)
Teague E, Solidarity and the Soviet Worker. The Impact of the Polish Events of 1980 on Soviet Internal Politics (1988)
Tokes R L 'Varieties of Soviet Dissent: An Overview', in Tokes (ed), Dissent in the USSR (1975)

(d) Society

Beissinger M R, Scientific Management, Socialist Discipline, and Soviet Power (1988)
Binyon M, Life in Russia (1983)
Connor W D, Socialism, Politics and Equality. Hierarchy and Change in Eastern Europe and the USSR (1979)
George V & Manning N, Socialism, Social Welfare and the Soviet Union (1980)
Green C, Soviet Women (1989)
Harding N, 'Socialism, Society and the Organic Labour State', in Harding, N (ed), The State in Socialist Society (1984)
Kerblay B, Modern Soviet Society (1983)
Lane D, Politics and Society in the USSR (1970)
Lane D, The End of Social Inequality? (1982)
Lapidus G W, Women in Soviet Society: Equality, Development and Social Change (1978)
Marsh R (ed), Women in Russia and Ukraine (1996)
Matthews M, Class and Society in the Soviet Union (1972)
Matthews M, Privilege in the Soviet Union (1978)
McAuley A, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union (1979)
McAuley M, Labour Disputes in Soviet Russia, 1957-1965 (1969)
Nove A, 'Is there a ruling class in the USSR?', Soviet Studies XXVII, pp. 615-38
Pravda A, 'Is there a Soviet Working Class?', Problems of Communism 31, 6 (1982), pp. 1-24
Smith H, The Russians (1976)
Voslensky M, Nomenklatura: An Anatomy of the Soviet Ruling Class (1984)
Yanowitch M & Fisher W (eds), Social Stratification and Mobility in the USSR (1973)
Yanowitch M (ed), Social and Economic Inequality in the Soviet Union (1977)
Zaslavsky V, The Neo-Stalinist State. Class, Ethnicity and Consensus in Soviet Society (1982)

(e) Nationality issues before 1985

Allworth Edward (ed), Soviet Nationality Problems (1971)
Azrael Jeremy, Soviet Nationality Policies and Practices (1978)
Conquest Robert (ed), Soviet Nationalities Policy in Practice (1967)
Conquest Robert (ed), The Last Empire (1986)
Dzyuba Ivan, Internationalism or Russification (1968)
Gitelman Zvi 'Are Nations Merging in the USSR?', Problems of Communism 32, 5 (1983)
Hodnett G 'The Debate over Soviet Federalism', Soviet Studies 18, 4, (1966/67), pp. 458-481 (also in Denber (ed), pp. 121-147)
Jones E & Grupp F, 'Modernisation and Ethnic Equalisation', Soviet Studies 36 (1984)
Karklins E, Ethnic Relations in the USSR (1986)
Katz Z (ed), Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (1975)
McAuley M, 'Nationalism and the Soviet Multi-Ethnic State' in Harding N (ed), The State in Socialist Society (1984)
Newth J, 'The 1970 Soviet Census' in Soviet Studies, 24, 2 (1972/73)
Olcott M, 'Y. Andropov and the National Question', Soviet Studies 37 (1985), pp. 103-117
Rakowska-Harmstone T, 'The Dialectics of Nationalism in the USSR', Problems of Communism 23, 3 (1974)
Tillet Lowell, The Great Friendship (1969)
Vardys V S 'Modernisation and Baltic Nationalism', Problems of Communism 24, 5 (1975)
Zaslavsky V 'The Ethnic Question in the USSR' in TELOS 45 (1980), pp. 45-76

Links:

Yu V Andropov timeline

L I Brezhnev - "Brezhnev doctrine", 1968

L I Brezhnev timeline with samples of his writings, poetry, speeches. Has other links

K V Chernenko timeline

Constitution of the USSR, 1977

Dissent, 1967 - petition against legality of trial of Ginzburg et al.

Documents on the Afghan war

N S Khrushchev - Speech at the Closed Session of the 20th Congress of the CPSU - excerpts

N S Khrushchev - Speech at the Closed Session of the 20th Congress of the CPSU - in full

N S Khrushchev timeline

Mark Kramer on the Prague Spring and the invasion of Czechoslovakia

M A Suslov timeline

V M Zubok on Khrushchev-Mao conversations 1958-59

2. GORBACHEV AND THE END OF THE COLD WAR

Section 1(a) plus:
*Gorbachev M S, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (1988)
*Pryce-Jones D, The War that Never Was: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, 1985-1991 (1995)
*Crockatt R, The Fifty Years War: the United States and the Soviet Union in World Politics, 1941-1991 (1995)
*Garton Ash T, We, The People: The Revolution of 1989 (1990)

Adelman J R, The Dynamics of Soviet Foreign Policy (1989)
Dawisha K, Eastern Europe, Gorbachev and Reform (1990)
Galeotti M, The Age of Anxiety: Security and Politics in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia (1995)
Galeotti M, Afghanistan: the Soviet Union's Last War (1995)
Gorodetsky G (ed), Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917-1991: a retrospective (1994)
Hasegawa T & Pravda A (eds), Perestroika: Soviet domestic and foreign policies (1990)
Kanet R E et al (eds), Soviet foreign policy in transition (1992)
Miller R F, Soviet Foreign Policy Today: Gorbachev and the new political thinking (1991)
Pearson R, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire (1998)
Pravda A The Outer Empire: Soviet-East European relations in Transition, 1985-1990 (1992)
Shevardnadze E, The Future Belongs to Freedom (1991)
Zwick P, Soviet foreign relations: process and policy (1990)

Links:

Cold War International History Project homepage

M S Gorbachev brief biography

M S Gorbachev Foundation website

M S Gorbachev pictures

M S Gorbachev's latest website

M S Gorbachev timeline

Hungary: chronology of 1987-1990 events

Hungary: documents on political transition

Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact

David Remnick interview with Gorbachev, 1996

3 & 4. PERESTROIKA, THE ECONOMY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE

Section 1(b) and 1(d) plus:
*Aslund A, Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform (1991)
*Cook L J, The Soviet Social Contract and Why it Failed: Welfare Policy and Workers' Politics from Brezhnev to Yeltsin (1993)
*Nove A, An Economic History of the USSR (1992)
*Nove A, Glasnost in Action (1989) ch 8

Boettke P J, Why Perestroika Failed. The Politics and Economics of Socialist Transformation (1993)
Buckley M (ed), Perestroika and Soviet Women (1992)
Clarke C et al (eds), What About The Workers? Workers and the Transition to Capitalism in Russia (1993)
Davies R W, 'Gorbachev's socialism in historical perspective', New Left Review 179 (Jan-Feb 1990)
Filtzer D, Soviet Workers and the Collapse of Perestroika (1994)
Friedgut T & Siegelbaum L, 'Perestroika from below: the Soviet miners' strike and its aftermath' New Left Review 181 (1990)
Goldman M I, What Went Wrong With Perestroika (1992)
Hewett E A, Reforming the Soviet Economy: Equality versus Efficiency (1988)
Kagarlitsky B, The Dialectic of Change (1990)
Kagarlitsky B, Farewell Perestroika (1990)
Lane D 'The roots of political reform: The changing social structure of the USSR', in Merridale C (ed), Perestroika. The Historical Perspective (1991)
Lewin M, The Gorbachev Phenomenon: A Historical Interpretation (1989)
Mandel D, 'The Social Basis of Perestroika', in S White et al (eds), Developments in Soviet Politics (1997)
Mandel D, 'Economic Reform and Democracy in the Soviet Union', in Miliband R et al (eds), The Socialist Register (1988)
Medvedev Zh, Gorbachev (1988)
Parker R, 'Assessing perestroika', World Policy Journal 6 (2) (1989) 264-96
Rutland P, 'Labor unrest and movements in 1989 and 1990', Soviet Economy 6, 4 (1990)
Teague E, 'Workers' Reactions to Perestroika and Glasnost', in White S et al (eds), The Soviet Transition (1993)
Ticktin H, 'The Contradictions of Gorbachev', in W Joyce et al (eds), Gorbachev and Gorbachevism, pp. 83-99

Links:

Horst Brand - Review article: Perestroika and its impact on the Soviet labor market

Chernobyl - some medical consequences

Chernobyl - site hosted by World Nuclear Association

David R Marples - article on effects of Chernobyl on Belarus and Ukraine

Perestroika - official definition of the term, 1987

Aleksandr Yakovlev - reflections on perestroika, 1993

5. GLASNOST' AND CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Section 1 (c) plus:
*Nove A, Glasnost in Action. Cultural Renaissance in Russia (1989)
*Robinson N, Ideology and the Collapse of the Soviet System (1995)
*Sandle M, A Short History of Soviet Socialism (1999)

Cerf C & Albee M, Voices of Glasnost (1990)
Cohen S & vanden Heuvel K (eds), Voices of Glasnost': Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers (1989)
Davies R W, Soviet Historians in the Gorbachev Revolution (1989)
Denber R (ed), The Soviet Nationality Reader (1992), pt. 5
Kirkwood M, 'Glasnost', the National Question and Soviet Language Policy', Soviet Studies 43 (1991)
Lenker M, 'The Politics of Language Policy: A Case Study of Uzbekistan' in Rieber A & Rubinstein A (eds), Perestroika at the Crossroads (1991)
Malia M, The Soviet Tragedy. A History of Socialism in Russia (1994)
Wilson A & Bachkatov L, Living with Glasnost. Youth and Society in a Changing Russia (1988)

6 & 7. DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE MOBILIZATION OF OPPOSITION

Section 1 (d) plus:
*Gill G, The collapse of the single-party system. The disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1994)
*Hosking G, Aves J, Duncan P, The Road to Post-Communism. Independent Political Movements in the Soviet Union, 1985-1991 (1992)
*Sakwa R, Gorbachev and His Reforms, 1985-1990 (1990)
*Cappelli O, 'The Short Parliament 1989-91: Political Elite, Societal Clevages and the Weakness of Party Politics', in White, S et al (eds), The Soviet Transition (1993)

Andreeva Nina, 'I Cannot Forgo My Principles', in Lane D, Soviet Society under Perestroika (1990) pp 108-117
Bialer S (ed), Politics, Society, and Nationality Inside Gorbachev's Russia (1989)
Bloomfield J (ed), The Soviet Revolution (1989)
Brown A, 'Political Change in the Soviet Union', World Policy Journal 6, no. 3 (1989), pp. 469-501
Chiesa G, 'The 28th Congress of the CPSU', Problems of Communism 39, 4 (1990)
Colton T J, 'The Moscow Election of 1990', Soviet Economy 6, 4 (1990)
Embree G, 'RSFSR election results and roll call votes', Soviet Studies 43, 6 (1991)
Gooding J, 'The XXVIII Congress of the CPSU in Perspective', Soviet Studies 43, 2 (1991)
Gregory P R, 'Soviet Bureaucratic Behaviour: Khozyaistvenniki and Apparatchiki', Soviet Studies 41 (1989), pp. 511-25
Harasymiw B, 'Changes in the Party's Composition: The "Destroyka" of the CPSU', The Journal of Communist Studies 7, 2 (1991)
Hill R, 'The Twenty-eighth CPSU Congress', The Journal of Communist Studies 7, 1 (1991)
Holmes L, The End of Communist Power: Anti-Corruption Campaigns and Legitimation Crisis (1993)
Joyce W, Ticktin H, White S (eds), Gorbachev and Gorbachevism
Kernan B & Aistrup J, 'The 1989 Elections to the Congress of People's Deputies in Moscow', Soviet Studies 43, 6 (1991)
Lane D (ed), Russia in Flux (1992)
Lentini P, 'Reforming the electoral system: the 1989 elections to the USSRR Congress of People's Deputies', The Journal of Communist Studies 7, 1 (1991)
Ligachev Y, Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin (1996)
McAuley M, 'Politics, economics and elite realignment in Russia: a regional perspective', Soviet Economy 8, 1 (1992)
'Minutes of the Plenary meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, October 1987', Political Archives of the Soviet Union, I, No. 1 (1990), pp. 57-126 (See EDJA)
Mitrokhin S & Urban M E, 'Social Groups, Party Elites and Russia's New Democrats', in Lane D (ed), Russia in Flux (1992)
Morrison J, Boris Yeltsin: From Bolshevik to Democrat (1991)
Moses J C, 'Soviet provincial politics in an era of transition and revolution, 1989-91', Soviet Studies 44, 3 (1992)
Orttung R W, 'The Russian right and the dilemmas of party organization', Soviet Studies 44, 3 (1992)
Rees A E, The Soviet Communist Party in disarray. The XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1992)
Robinson N, 'Parliamentary Politics under Gorbachev: Opposition and the Failure of Socialist Pluralism', in White S et al (eds), The Soviet Transition (1993)
Rutland P, 'The search for stability: ideology, discipline and the cohesion of the Soviet elite', Studies in Comparative Communism 24, 1 (1991)
Sakwa R, Russian Politics and Society (1993)
Sandle M, 'The Draft Party Programme of July-August 1991', Europe-Asia Studies 48 (1996), pp.1131-1150
Surovell J, 'Ligachev and Soviet politics', Soviet Studies 43, 2 (1991)
Urban M E, 'Party Formation and Deformation on Russia's Democratic Left', in Huber R T & Keely D R (eds), Perestroika-era Politics: The New Legislature and Gorbachev's Political Reforms (1991)
Unger A L, 'The travails of intra-party democracy in the Soviet Union: the elections to the 19th Conference of the CPSU', Soviet Studies 43, 2 (1991)
White S, 'Gorbachev, Gorbachevism and the Party Conference', The Journal of Communist Studies 4, 4 (1988)
White S et al (eds), The Soviet Transition: From Gorbachev to Yeltsin (1993)
White S, Pravda A, Gitelman Z (eds), Developments in Soviet Politics (1997)
White S et al (eds), The Politics of Transition. Shaping a Post-Soviet Future (1993)
Yeltsin B, Against the Grain (1990)
Yeltsin B, 'Yeltsin's election platform, March 1989', in Lane D, Soviet Society under Perestroika (1990), pp. 85-8

Nationalism and nationalities
Section 1(e) plus:
*Carrere D'Encausse H, The End of the Soviet Empire (1993)
*Hosking G, The Awakening of the Soviet Union (1990)
*Denver R (ed), The Soviet Nationality Reader: the Disintegration in Context (1992)

Allworth Edward (ed), Tatars of the Crimea: Their Struggle for Survival (1988)
Allworth E (ed), 'A Theory of Soviet Nationality Policies' in Huttenbach H (ed) Soviet Nationality Policies (1990)
Gitelman Z, 'The nationalities', in White S et al (eds), Developments in Soviet Politics (1997)
Glebov O & Crowfoot J, The Soviet Empire: Its Nations Speak Out (1989) (Proceedings of People's Congress & Supreme Soviet 1989)
Goble P, 'Ethnic politics in the USSR', Problems of Communism, July-Aug, (1989), pp. 1-15
Gorbachev M S, Perestroika (1987), pp. 118-22
Hill R J, 'Managing Ethnic Conflict' in White S et al (eds), The Soviet Transition (1993)
Kreindler I, 'The Soviet Deported Nationalities: A Summary And an Update', Soviet Studies 38, 3 (1986)
Lane D, Soviet Society under Perestroika (1990) ch 6
Lapidus W G et al (eds), From Union to Commonwealth. Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics (1992)
McAuley A (ed), Soviet federalism, nationalism and economic decentralization (1991)
Mandelbaum M (ed), The Rise of Nations in the Soviet Union: American Foreign Policy and the Disintegration of the USSR (1991)
Motyl A (ed), Thinking Theoretically About Soviet Nationalities (1992)
Motyl A, The Post-Soviet Nations (1992) esp. chs. by H Gitelman
Nahajlo B & Swoboda V, Soviet Disunion. A History of the Nationalities Problem (1990)
Ogden D, 'A Union of a New Type', in J Bloomfield (ed), The Soviet Revolution (1989), pp. 176-202
Smith G (ed), The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union (1990)
Simon G, Nationalism and Policy Towards the Nationalities in the Soviet Union: From Totalitarian Dictatorship to Post-Stalinist Society (1991)
Williams B G, 'Commemorating "The deportation" in Post-Soviet Chechnya', History and Memory 12 (1) (2000), pp. 101-34

Links:

V. Chebrikov (KGB) on oppositional publications, 1987

Resolution of the 3rd All-Union Conference of the Society "Unity, for Leninism and Communistic Ideals", 1990

Andrei Sakharov pages

Boris Yeltsin - brief biography

Vladimir Zhirinovsky - brief biography

8. CASE STUDIES IN MINORITY NATIONALISM: LITHUANIAN, GEORGIAN, UKRAINIAN

Section 6/7 Nationalism and nationalities plus:
Besancon A, 'The Nationalities Issue in the USSR', Survey 30, 4 (1989), pp. 113-30
Carrere D'Encausse H, Decline of an Empire. The Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt (1979)
Denber R (ed), The Soviet Nationality Reader (1992)
Fowkes B, The Disintegration of the Soviet Union (1997)
Furtado F & Chandler C, Perestroika in the Soviet Republics (1991)
Gleason G, Federalism and Nationalism. The Struggle For Republican Rights in the USSR (1990)
Glebov O & Crowfoot J, The Soviet Empire: Its Nations Speak Out (1989) (People's Congress & Supreme Soviet 1989)
Goble P, 'Imperial Endgame: Nationality Problems and the Soviet Future' in Balzer H (ed) 5 Years That Shook the World (1990)
Hajda L & Beissenger M (eds), The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society (1990)
Huttenbach H (ed), Soviet Nationality Policies (1990)
Kozlov V, The Peoples of the Soviet Union (1988)
Kux S, 'Soviet Federalism' in Problems of Communism (1990)
Laitin D, 'National Uprisings in the Soviet Union' in World Politics 44, 1 (1991), pp139-177
Lapidus G, 'Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case' in Denber (ed), pp. 417-440
Lapidus G, 'Gorbachev's Nationalities Problems', Foreign Affairs (1989), pp. 92-108
Motyl A, 'The Sobering of Gorbachev: Nationality, Restructuring and the West' in Denber (ed), pp. 573-596
Motyl A, Will the Non-Russians Rebel? State, Ethnicity and Stability in the USSR (1987)
Motyl A (ed), The Post Soviet Nations. Perspectives on the Demise of the USSR (1992)
Nahaylo B & Swoboda V, Soviet Disunion. A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR (1990)
Roeder P G, 'Soviet Federalism and Ethnic Mobilisation', World Politics 23, 2 (1991), pp. 196-223
Smith G (ed), The Nationalities Question in the Soviet Union (1990)
Smith H, The New Russians (1991)
Suny R G, 'State, Civil Society and Ethnic Cultural Consolidation in the USSR: Roots of the National Question' in Dallin A & Lapidus G (eds), The Soviet System in Crisis (1991), pp. 413-429
Suny R G, 'Incomplete Revolution: National Movements and The Collapse of the Soviet Empire', New Left Review 189 (1992), pp. 111-125.
Suny R G, Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1993)

The Baltic Republics

Allworth E (ed), Nationality Group Survival in Multiethnic States:Shifting Support Patterns in the Soviet Baltic Regions (1977)
Dreifeld J, 'Latvian National Rebirth', Problems of Communism (1989)
Hiden J & Salmon J, The Baltic Nations and Europe (1996)
Kasekamp A 'Paths to Baltic Independence', Slovo 5, 1 (1992)
Misiunas R & Taagepera R, The Baltic States: The Years of Dependence 1940-80 (1983
Misiunas R & Taagepera R, Estonia: Return to Independence (1995)
Senn A E, 'Towards Lithuanian Independence: Algirdas Brazauskas and the CPL', Problems of Communism 39, 2 (1990)
Smith G (ed), The Baltic States (1995)
Various, 'Visions and Policies: Estonia's Path to Independence and Beyond 1987-93', Journal of Soviet Nationalities special issue (1995)
Taagepera R, 'Estonia's Road to Independence', Problems of Communism (1989)
Taagepera R, 'A Note on the March 1989 Elections in Estonia', Soviet Studies 42, 2, (1990)
Trapans J (ed), Towards Independence: Baltic Popular Movements (1990)
Vardys V S, 'Lithuanian National Politics', Problems of Communism (1989)
Vardys V S, Lithuania: The Rebel Nation (1993)

Transcaucasus

Huttenbach H, The Caucasus: A Region in Crisis (1996)
Jones S, 'The Establishment of Soviet Power in Transcaucasia: The Case of Georgia 1921-28', Soviet Studies 40, 4 (1988)
Nahaylo B, The Ukrainians and the Georgians (1990)
Parsons J, 'National Integration in Soviet Georgia', Soviet Studies 34, 4 (1982)
Saroyan M, 'The ''Karabakh Syndrome'' and Azerbaijani Politics', Problems of Communism (1990)
Suny R G, 'Georgia and Soviet Nationality Policy' in Cohen S et al (eds), The Soviet Union Since Stalin (1980)
Suny R G (ed), Transcaucasia, Nationalism and Social Change (1983)
Suny R G, The Making of the Modern Georgian Nation (1989)
Suny R G, 'Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev's Soviet Union: The Case of Karabakh' in Denber (ed)
Walker C J, Armenia: The Survival of a Nation (1980)

Ukraine, Belorus, Moldavia

Bociurkiw B, 'Ukrainian Catholic Church in Gorbachev's USSR', Problems of Communism (1990)
Bruchis M, 'The Language Policy of the CPSU and the Linguistic Situation in Soviet Moldavia' in Soviet Studies, 36, 1 (1984)
Chinn J & Roper S, Moldova: Neither nation nor State (1997)
Githier S, 'The Belorussians: National Identification and Assimilation 1897-1970' in Soviet Studies, 29, 1 & 2, (1977)
Krawchenko B, Social Change and National Consciousness in Twentieth Century Ukraine (1985)
Nahaylo B, The Ukrainians and the Georgians (1990)
Parnolto V, 'The Ukrainian Movement for Perestroika: Rukh - A Sociological Survey', Soviet Studies 43, 1, (1991)
Sochor Z, Ukraine (1996)
Szporluk R, 'West Ukraine and West Belorussia', Soviet Studies 31, 1 (1979)
Zaprudnik J, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (1993)
Zaprudnik J, 'Belorussian Awakening', Problems of Communism 38, 4, (1989)

Central Asia

Allworth E (ed), The Nationality Question in Soviet Central Asia (1973)
Carlisle Donald S, 'Uzbekistan and the Uzbeks', Problems of Communism, Sept-Oct (1991)
Critchlow J, Nationalism in Uzbekistan (1995)
Critchlow J, '"Corruption'', nationalism and the native elites in Soviet Central Asia', Journal of Communist Studies 4, 2 (1988)
Fierman W (ed), Soviet Central Asia: the Failed Transformation (1991)
Gleason G, The Central Asian States (1996)
Imart G G, 'Kirgizia-Kazakhstan: A Hinge or a Fault-Line?', Problems of Communism, Sept-Oct (1990)
Lenker M, 'The Politics of Language Policy: A Case Study of Uzbekistan' in Rieber A & Rubinstein A (eds), Perestroika at the Crossroads (1991)
Lubin N, 'Women in Soviet Central Asia', Soviet Studies 33, 2 (1981)
Manz B F (ed), Central Asia in Historical Perspective (1989)
Olcott M B, 'Perestroika in Kazakhstan', Problems of Communism, July-August (1990)
Rakowska-Harmstone T, Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia: the Case of Tadjikistan (1970)
Ro'I Y, 'The Task of Creating the New Soviet Man: Atheistic Propaganda in Soviet Muslim Areas', Soviet Studies 36, 1 (1984)
Ro'I Y 'Islam and Nationalism in Soviet Central Asia', Problems of Communism (July-August 1990)

Links:

Azerbaijani site on the case of Nagorny Karabakh

David R Marples - article on effects of Chernobyl on Belarus and Ukraine

9. THE CASE OF RUSSIAN NATIONALISM

*Carter S, Russian Nationalism: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1990)
*Hosking G, Russia and the Russians (2001)
*Tolz V, Russia: Inventing the Nation (2001)

Allworth E (ed), Ethnic Russia in the USSR: The Dilemma of Dominance (1980)
Blum D (ed), Russia's Future (1994)
Bremner I & Taras R, New States, New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations (1997)
Dunlop J, The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism (1983)
Evans A B Jr, 'Yeltsin and Russian Nationalism', Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 21, 1 (1994)
Groys B & Shlapentokh V, 'Russia and the West: The Quest for Russian National Identity', Studies in Soviet Thought, 43 (1992)
Hughes M, 'The Never-Ending Story: Russian Nationalism, National Communism and Opposition to Reform in the USSR and Russia', Journal of Communist Studies 9, 2 (1993)
Khazanov A, After the USSR: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Politics in the CIS (1995)
Lapidus G (ed), The New Russia: A Troubled Transformation (1994)
Solchanyk R, 'Russian Language and Soviet Politics' in Soviet Studies, 34, 1 (1982)
Szporluk R, 'Dilemmas of Russian Nationalism', Problems of Communism, July-Aug (1989), pp. 15-36
Yanov A, The Russian Challenge (1987)
Radio Liberty, Special Bulletin, 1988, 19 Dec, 'Russian Nationalism Today'

10. THE AUGUST COUP AND THE BREAK-UP OF THE USSR

*Billington J H, Russia Transformed: Breakthrough to Hope. Moscow, August 1991 (1992)
*Brown A, The Gorbachev Factor (1996)
*Gorbachev M S, The August Coup: the Truth and the Lessons (1991)
*Sixsmith M, Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System (1991)

Boldin V I, Ten Years that Shook the World. The Gorbachev Era as witnessed by his Chief of Staff (1994)
Chernyaev A S, My Six Years with Gorbachev (2000)
Grachev A, Final Days (1996) (view of Gorbachev's press officer)
Miller J H, Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power (1993)
Morrison J, Boris Yeltsin: from Bolshevik to Democrat (1991)
Sakwa R 'A Cleansing Storm: The August Coup and the Triumph of Perestroika', Journal of Communist Studies 9 (1993) pp 131-49
Walker R, Six Years that Shook the World (1993)

Links:

Chronology of August 1991 coup

Sam Greene, The Russia Journal, on the coup of August 1991

Moscow Times on the coup of August 1991

February 2002