THE GORBACHEV PHENOMENON: A Historical Interpretation

by Moshe Lewin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1988

Concise, illuminating commentary on the state of the Soviet Union. Lewin (Lenin's Last Struggle, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power) argues that Gorbachev did not unleash the winds of change now whistling through the Kremlin. As a practical matter, he concludes, the Communist Party's new general secretary and his Politburo comrades may be making a virtue of necessity; at a minimum, they will have to move nimbly to control the sociopolitical and economic forces that have been gathering momentum virtually since the end of the 1917 revolution. Over the past 70 years, the Univ. of Pennsylvania historian points out, the USSR, once a backward agrarian nation, has become a predominantly urban industrial power. In the process, a culturally diverse and well-educated citizenry has developed aspirations that the government must at least appease. That it has been doing so in one way or another since the Khrushchev era, Lewin submits, is largely lost on Western observers (including journalists), who prefer to view the Soviet system as static and essentially incapable of altercation, much less adaptation. ""Soviet society needs a state that can match its comlexity,"" Lewin asserts. But whether the reality of reform à la russe can keep pace with the East/West rhetoric it has aroused remains an open question in his mind. Given the likelihood of increasingly vocal opposition from a coalition of apparatchiks and party members, Lewin cautions, neither glasnost (openness) nor perestroika (restructuring) is a sure bet at this stage. If Gorbachev can persevere for a couple of more years, however, the author believes the old guard's day will have passed. Lewin's study is sharply focused, ignoring events at the margin in so-called satellite countries and entanglements like Afghanistan. He nonetheless offers intriguing perspectives on an imperfectly understood regime that may be only a few steps ahead of the polyglot population it is assumed to lead and rule.

Pub Date: March 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of California Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION