Soviet history by Ronald Suny
Journal of Cold War Studies, 2021
In the essay, I derive from the knowledge of Soviet history a map of the problems, fault lines, w... more In the essay, I derive from the knowledge of Soviet history a map of the problems, fault lines, weaknesses, and strengths that history handed down to post-1991 Russia. Some of the elements composing this map—Crimea and the Donbas, for example, and more generally those related to the transformation of administrative borders into political ones—were immediately visible but could lie relatively still until this or that event triggered their activation. Others, such as ways of thinking (what French historians call mentalités) and intellectual horizons, which play a crucial role in shaping the vision of what is possible to do in dealing with a reality that is often much more malleable than our minds can contemplate, were fully operational since the beginning. Yet other elements, such as the weight of Soviet education, in the broadest sense of the term, were also immediately felt and continued to reproduce themselves as years went by and new cohorts of Soviet-educated people climbed the social and political ladder. Yet others, such as those stemming from the peculiarities of Soviet modernization in the economic and legal fields (e.g., the underdevelopment of the credit system) had to be confronted and somehow fixed very soon, which meant doing so while relying primarily on Soviet-created or crudely imported intellectual tools.
The discussion assesses in four sections the influence
of these and other problems and elements on the predicament and choices of Russian political leaders, as well as of selected population strata, by taking into account intellectual, economic, social, demographic, “imperial,” national, and (broadly speaking) cultural factors.
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Soviet history by Ronald Suny
The discussion assesses in four sections the influence
of these and other problems and elements on the predicament and choices of Russian political leaders, as well as of selected population strata, by taking into account intellectual, economic, social, demographic, “imperial,” national, and (broadly speaking) cultural factors.
The discussion assesses in four sections the influence
of these and other problems and elements on the predicament and choices of Russian political leaders, as well as of selected population strata, by taking into account intellectual, economic, social, demographic, “imperial,” national, and (broadly speaking) cultural factors.