Gorbachev, Lenin, and the Break with Leninism in Russia

Gorbachev, Lenin, and the Break with Leninism in Russia


Brown A.,

British political scientist and historian, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, where he was a Professor of Politics, new-polis@politstudies.ru



DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2007.06.08

For citation:

Brown A. Gorbachev, Lenin, and the Break with Leninism in Russia . – Polis. Political Studies. 2007. No. 6. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2007.06.08



Abstract

The author examines the paradox of Mikhail Gorbachev's esteem for Lenin in combination with his growing rejection of Leninism. While Gorbachev still held the office of general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, he embraced ideas fundamentally at odds with those of the Soviet Union's principal architect. The focus of Western writers on Gorbachev's 1987 book, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, as a major source has been simplistic and misleading, obscuring the radicalization of Gorbachev's political ideas from 1988 onward. Drawing, inter alia, on previously unused archival documents, the author demonstrates how Gorbachev's views moved closer to those of Eduard Bernstein, a democratic socialist thinker whom Lenin despised, than to Leninism. Given the institutional power Gorbachev wielded until late in the perestroika period, his embrace of concepts radically at odds with Leninism was of critical importance, opening doors which had remained firmly closed for decades.

 


Content No. 6, 2007

See also:


Durdin D.M.,
The “Image” of a Political Leader and Possibilities of Changing It. – Polis. Political Studies. 2000. No2

Glubotzky A.Yu., Kynev A.V.,
The Party Component of the Russian Regions’ Legislative Assemblies. – Polis. Political Studies. 2003. No6

Podyachev K.V.,
The Institution of Citizens’ Addresses to Government Bodies and Transformation of the Russian Political System: Possibilities of Emergence of a New Channel of Political Influence. – Polis. Political Studies. 2007. No5

Tolpygo A.K.,
The Reds in the Ukraine. – Polis. Political Studies. 1999. No4

Liechtenstein A.V., Yargomskaya N.B.,
The Duverger Equilibrium as Checked under the Conditions of Limited Competition: the 2003 Duma Elections. – Polis. Political Studies. 2005. No1

 

   

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Polis. Political Studies
1 2005


Peskov D.N.
World Politics, or Running on the Spot

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