Reform in Modern Russian History
Progress or Cycle?

An historical introduction to the prospects for reform in Russian state and society.

Theodore Taranovski (Edited by)

9780521451772, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 January 1995

456 pages
23.7 x 15.8 x 3.9 cm, 0.791 kg

"...the papers published in this volume are fine examples of the thinking of American and Soviet scholars on a topic of enormous importance..." The Historian

This volume provides a comparative study of the problems and prospects of reform in modern Russian history. Drawn from contributions to a May 1990 conference sponsored by the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, the book raises important methodological and historiographic questions regarding the content, scope, and significance of various reform efforts, ranging from the Great Reforms of tsar Alexander II to attempts to salvage the Soviet system undertaken by Khrushchev and Gorbachev. One of the key issues raised is whether various attempts to modernise the political and social system were a series of cyclical failures or demonstrate a pattern of progressive development.Reform in Modern Russian History favours the second mode of interpretation and provides an excellent background for all who want to understand the Gorbachev era and contemporary Russian politics.

1. The problem of reform in Russian and Soviet history Theodore Taranovski
Part I. Traditions of Reform in Late Imperial Russia: 2. 'Revolution from Above' in Russia: reflections on Natan Eidel'man's last book and related matters Terence Emmons
3. Russia falls back Russia catches up: three generations of Russian reformers Valentina G. Cherukha and Boris V. Anan'ich
4. From reforms 'from above' to revolution 'from below' Larisa G. Zakharova
5. Reforms and political culture in prerevolutionary Russia: Commentary Daniel Field
Part II. Autocracy and the Challenge of Constitutionalism: 6. The social problem in Russia 1906–1914: Stolypin's agrarian reform Avenir P. Korelin
7. Agricultural reform and political change: the case of Stolypin David A. J. Macey
8. United government and the crisis of autocracy 1905–1914 David M. McDonald
9. Russia's parliament of public opinion: association assembly and the autocracy 1906–1914 Joseph Bradley
10. The reforming tradition in Russian and Soviet history: Commentary Alfred J. Rieber
Part III. The Uncertain Interlude: 11. The evolution of Bolshevik cultural policies during the first years of Soviet power Peter Kenez
12. Local power in the 1920s: police and administrative reform Neil B. Weissman
13. The antibureaucratic campaigns of the 1920s Daniel T. Orlovsky
14. The inconsistency of NEP: Commentary Ben Eklof
15. Khrushchev and the crisis of the regime of the Marxian prince Carl A. Linden
16. Khrushchev's reforms in the light of perestroika Vitalii S. Lel'chuk
17. Perestroika: a revival of Khruschevian reform or a new idea of socialist state Giulietto Chiesa
18. Khruschev and Gorbachev - similarity and difference: commentary Robert V. Daniels
19. The reformer's dilemma - damned if it's reform, damned if it's revolution: Commentary William Taubman
Part V. The Past, the Present and the Future: 20. Perestroika and the role of representative institutions in contemporary Soviet politics Sergei B. Stankevich
21. Glasnost in Russia and the USSR: the 1860s and the 1980s Iurii M. Baturin
22. Reform and revolution: Commentary Blair Ruble
23. The fifth Russian revolution: Commentary Robert C. Tucker
24. The return to normalcy: commentary Theodore Taranovski.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]