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Five Years That Shook the World

Five Years That Shook the World

Gorbachev's Unfinished Revolution

Edited By
Harley D. Balzer
Georgetown University

First published 1991 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

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

Copyright 1991 by Taylor & Francis

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.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Five years that shook the world: Gorbachev's unfinished revolution / edited by
Harley D. Balzer.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-1196-9ISBN 0-8133-1197-7 (pbk.)
1. Soviet UnionPolitics and government1985
2. Perestroika.
3. Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich, 1931 . I. Balzer, Harley D.
DK288.F58 1991
947.085'4dc20 90-24880
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-00404-0 (hbk)

Half measures can kill when on the brink of precipices,
chafing in terror at the bit,
we strain and sweat and foam because we cannot
jump just halfway across.

Blind is the one who but half sees the chasm,
and half recoils because he lost his way...

-Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(Translated by Alexis Obolensky and Victor H. Winston)

... we are in the midst of a yet unfinished revolution... The birth pains of modem industrial society, which Marx often mistook for the death throes of capitalism, are being enacted before our eyes.

-Adam Ulam

Contents

1. v

Guide

Whatever the fate of his attempt to restructure the Soviet Union's economy and political system, Mikhail Gorbachev has changed the world. The political landscape of Central and Eastern Europe has been altered in ways that seemed unimaginable even in 1987 or 1988. The role of communism in the Third World will never again be the same. Yet the domestic revolution remains unfinished, and its direction uncertain. By early 1991 many analysts shifted their focus from Gorbachev's chances for "success" to the possibility of a return to Stalinism Neither the revolution nor the debate is finished.

The goal of this volume is to present a balanced analysis of perestroika with an eye to the ongoing political, social and cultural changes. In assessing the first five years, the contributors have sought to treat the period as a coherent historical episode, despite the lack of perspective that is so important to historians. I have already written about the effects of perestroika and glasnost on Sovietology ("Can We Survive Glasnost?" AAASS Newsletter, Vol. 20, No. 1 [January 1989] pp. 1-2). Virtually every contributor to this volume would undoubtedly want a chance to revise what has been written by the time the book is published. We have discussed semi-seriously the comparative advantages of issuing the volume in loose-leaf binders to permit periodic updating, or perhaps publishing "on line" with regular emendations.

Sovietology may indeed come to that. But it smacks of Orwell. Instead, we have made an effort at reasoned judgments of Gorbachev's first five years, with some additions based on events up to the end of January 1991. All of the contributors completed work on their chapters by that date.

The chapters published here are based on papers prepared for a conference on The First Five Years of Perestroika: What Have We Learned? What Has Gorbachev Learned?" held at Georgetown University March 8-9, 1990, in conjunction with the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Georgetown's Russian Area Studies Program.

The conference was sponsored by the Georgetown University Russian Area Studies Program. Additional financial support was provided by the Social Science Research Council and by the Georgetown University Graduate School.

In addition to these chapters, a number of other scholars presented papers at the conference which, for various reasons, could not be included in the volume. Alfred J. Rieber, Vladimir Voinovich, Karen Dawisha, Robert Campbell, Herbert Levine, Yaacov Ro'i, Gail Lapidus, Mark Zlotnik, Rose Gottemoeller, Dale Herspring and Ted Warner all provided insights that were of benefit in completing this volume. The panel chairs, David Ransel, Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, "Valery Petrochenkov, Stuart Brown, Thane Gustafson, Richard Scribner and Robert Lieber,contributed comments and expertise.

The conference would not have been possible without the work of Jill Roese, the Russian Area Studies Program Administrative Assistant.

In preparing the manuscript for publication, compiling the appendixes and preparing the index, I was fortunate to have the assistance of Susan Brent, Laura Guinn, Eric Johnson, Elizabeth Kirkwood, Jennifer Long, Elizabeth O'Shea, Ann Rubin, Valerie Sperling, and Valerye Strochak.

Susan McEachern of Westview Press has been involved in this project from its inception, and her enthusiasm was a major factor in bringing it to fruition. Chris Arden, Diana Luykx, and Bev LeSuer were of tremendous help in processing the manuscript.

Marjorie Mandelstam Baker has made an intellectual and personal commitment to this project far beyond what mere mention in a preface can acknowledge. Her support, in all its forms, is gratefully appreciated.

Harley D. Balzer
Cabin John, MD

According to the 1989 Census

Republic	Population	Titular Nationality
Russian Republic	147,021,869	81.5%
Ukraine	51,471,499	72.7%
Belorussia	10,151,806	77.9%
Moldova	4,335,360	64.5%
Armenia	3,304,776	93.3%
Azerbaidzhan	7,021,178	75.6%
Georgia	5,409,841	70.0%
Estonia	1,565,662	61.5%
Latvia	2,666,567	52.0%
Lithuania	3,674,802	79.6%
Kazakhstan	16,464,464	39.7%
Kirghizia	4,257,755	52.4%
Tadzhikistan	5,092,603	62.3%
Turkmenistan	3,522,717	72.0%
Uzbekistan	19,810,077	71.4%
TOTAL	285,761,976
Total as of January 1, 1990: 288,623,600

Source: Soiuz, No. 32, August 1990, pp. 12-13.

No one should have been expected to predict the extent of the changes in the USSR in the second half of the 1980s. To have anticipated the accession of a younger leader who would not onlysucceed in consolidating political power but also sustain a major assault on the inevitable resistance to reform demanded too much foresight. More than a few of Mikhail Gorbachev's closest supporters have stated that had Gorbachev himself known in 1985 just how far he would be drawn along the path of perestroika, he might not have taken the first steps. The five years from 1985 to 1990 were a time of learning for the participants as well as for the outside observers.

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