David A. Dyker - The Soviet Union Under Gorbachev (Routledge Revivals): Prospects for Reform

Routledge Revivals

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev

Gorbachevs accession to General Secretary promised great changes to the Soviet Union and its relationship with the rest of the world. This book, first published in 1987, discusses the problems faced by Gorbachev when he entered office and how he planned to tackle them. Gorbachev was a figure of genuine debate in the mid-1980s, raising doubts from Western specialists regarding his radicalism and ability to reform the Soviet economic system in particular. Here, Dyker and his colleagues assess the changes Gorbachev had already made to consolidate his power base, alongside those that he was proposing to make to agriculture, industry and foreign relations at the time of publication. The book speculates about how Gorbachev might implement his proposed political and economic reforms, what opposition he might encounter and how successful he would be. A fascinating insight into Soviet economic and political policy in the years leading up to the Unions collapse, this work will be of particular importance to students and academics researching the personality of Gorbachev and the political and economic history of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev

Prospects for Reform

Edited by David A. Dyker

First published in 1987
by Croom Helm Ltd

This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1987 David A. Dyker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 87015432

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-83118-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-76329-2 (ebk)

THE SOVIET UNION UNDER GORBACHEV:

Prospects for Reform

Edited by David A. Dyker

CROOM HELM

London New York Sydney

1987 David A. Dyker
Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent, BR3 1AT

Croom Helm Australia, 44-50 Waterloo Road,
North Ryde, 21 13, New South Wales

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev: prospects for reform.

1. Soviet Union Social Conditions 1970-

I. Dyker, David A.

947.0854 HN523.5

ISBN 0-7099-4519-1

Published in the USA by
Croom Helm
in association with Methuen, Inc.
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

1. Soviet UnionEconomic policy1981- 2. Soviet UnionPolitics and government1982-

I. Dyker, David A.

HC336.25.S685 1987 338.947 87-15432

ISBN 0-7099-4519-1

Filmset by Mayhew Typesetting, Bristol, England
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Billing & Sons Limited, Worcester.

Contents

Notes on Contributors

This book represents the fruits of an informal study group, centred on the School of European Studies, University of Sussex, which met through the summer of 1986. Our aim was to bring together the experience practical as well as academic of a small group of Soviet specialists with contrasting expertises, and see how close we could come in our assessments of the likely future of Gorbachevs Soviet Union. Without any undue prompting from the editor, a remarkably high degree of consensus was achieved, and the result is a tolerably clear prognostication. How correct it is events alone can show. Our thanks are due to David R. Jones, editor of Soviet Armed Forces Review Annual, for permission to use the material presented in . We must also record our appreciation of the help we received from the staff of the School of European Studies in the preparations of the typescript.

David A. Dyker,
School of European Studies, University of Sussex

Introduction

David A. Dyker

In the period since the 1985 change in the Soviet leadership there has been, understandably, a good deal of emphasis on Gorbachev the personality. In terms of self-projection, handling of the media, and presentation of policy departures, the new General Secretary has undoubtedly struck a new note, set a new style. The aim of the present work is to try to get beyond the stage management, to peel off the packaging, and evaluate the policy departures on their own merits. In so doing we have not lacked for formal pronouncements to serve as a starting point. With planning experiments, agricultural reorganisations and arms reduction proposals, not to mention intra-Comecon vicissitudes and ubiquitous personnel changes, our problem in the present context was rather one of selection. The principle we chose emerges directly from our title. We are interested in prospects for reform. That is why we have not devoted special chapters to, for instance, nationality relations, religion and political dissent. In terms of evaluation of likely secular trends in Soviet polity and society, those and other dimensions may be as important as any. But it is very improbable that they will be the subject of specific, major legislation or negotiation this year or next. That is why we have concentrated on Gorbachevs internal politics, Soviet foreign policy in all its ramifications, and economic reform. Other issues are introduced to the extent that they shed light on these, our central concerns. They are, needless to say, intertwining themes. We have tried to point up the linkages as we go along, and to pull together as many threads as possible in our Conclusion. Certainly the full pattern has not yet been revealed to us, and in the last analysis this must remain a provisional assessment. But, of course, il ny a rien qui dure que le provisoire.

What do we mean by reform?

Why has reform been such a dominant theme in the Soviet Union, and in Soviet studies, for over a quarter of a century now? Other countries, it seems, can get by without reforms, so why not the Soviet Union? The simplest answer is that in a system so highly centralised, so heavily based on the military principle of command, very little can change without express permission from Party and government. In our search for a workable definition, then, we begin by contrasting reform to evolution.

There can be no doubt, however, that in the Soviet Union itself, under Brezhnev, reform, like experiment, became a weasel word. In practice, through a period of overwhelming inertia in policy-making, reforms and experiments served as substitutes