Soviet ideological discourse and Perestroika

Robinson, Neil

doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1995.tb00634.x

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 16 publications

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“…Gorbachev clung on to the socialist ideals, but by dismantling the enemy image of the West he undermined the discourse that had kept the party in power. This historian's view of the cold war and its end affirms current challenges to the realist tradition within political science and international relations, which sees the cold war primarily as a rational struggle over strategic and economic interests (Robinson, 1995b; Westad, 2000; compare Wohlforth, 2001).…”

Section: From Totalitarianism To Post-totalitarianismmentioning

confidence: 54%

Stalinism as a Civilization: New Perspectives on Communist Regimes

Hedin

2004

Political Studies Review

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A new line of inquiry into the history of communist regimes and the cold war has emerged. Pioneered by Stephen Kotkin and other American historians, it views Stalinism as the defining era of socialism, building a specific anti-capitalist and illiberal modernity that mustered voluntary participation and international legitimacy. This model of Stalinism as a rival civilization, held together by participatory totalitarianism, challenges older research on communist regimes -both revisionist and totalitarian studies. However, the degree of originality of this perspective is questioned here, citing precursors, parallels and contrasts within European research and political science. 's magnum opus, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization, was published in 1995. 2 With time, it has proven to be perhaps the key reference to the themes and methods common to a new generation of American researchers into communist regimes. For lack of an established name, I suggest that the two interconnected lines of research pioneered by Kotkin be dubbed 'competing modernities' and 'participatory totalitarianism'. In a compact summary, the claim of communist regimes to represent a superior modernity was key to their success in making Stalinism participatory.Both these concepts -competing modernities and participatory totalitarianism -highlight the paradigm's intellectual indebtedness to both totalitarian theory

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Section: From Totalitarianism To Post-totalitarianismmentioning

confidence: 54%