Soviet Leadership In Transition

Monograph speculating on effects of future change in USSR political leadership regarding soviet planned economy and foreign policy towards the USA - profiles Elite members in the communist political party, (including past generations), in public administration, in military service and in the foreign policy establishment, and asserts that future soviet leadership might try to improve the present conflictual relationships with the USA. Graphs, map and references.

This volume analyzes various aspects of the political leadership during the collapse of the Soviet Union and formation of a new Russia. Comparing the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin, the book reflects upon their goals, governing style, and sources of influence—as well as factors that influenced their activities and complicated them too. Contents Introduction Archie Brown Transformational Leaders Compared: Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin Archie Brown Evaluating Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders George W. Breslauer From Yeltsin to Putin: The Evolution of Presidential Power Lilia Shevtsova Political Leadership and the Center-Periphery Struggle: Putin's Administrative Reforms Eugene Huskey Conclusion Lilia Shevtsova

Because of the recent transition in the Soviet Union's leadership, scholars worldwide have found it necessary to reevaluate Soviet domestic and foreign policy. In this volume, prominent Japanese, U.S., and European experts examine changes within the USSR as well as Soviet reactions to changes in the rest of the world. They assess the immediate implications of change for such areas as technology, energy policy, and economic reform and deliver commentaries on current policy directions and historical backgrounds of Soviet policies. To commemorate its silver jubilee and to add the valuable perspective of Japanese Soviet-studies scholars to Western analyses, the Japan Institute of International Affairs held the symposium on which this volume is based.

The late twentieth century witnessed remarkable changes in Soviet domestic and foreign policy. Eastern Europe sprang free of the country that held it in its grip for over forty years. The Soviet leadership has accepted the reunification of Germany and supported the US-sponsored resolution in the UN permitting the use of force in the Gulf against one of its former allies.

February 7, 1990, was a day of unprecedented change in the history of the Soviet Union. On that day the Communist Party (CPSU) leadership surrendered its constitutional monopoly on the country's political life and process by agreeing to amend Article VI of the Soviet Constitution, which had previously guaranteed it that right. As often happened during the perestroyka years, that decision lagged behind the real course of political events in the Soviet Union and represented, as many measures taken by the Soviet leaders, a half step that left both opponents and proponents of reforms dissatisfied. But the importance of that highly symbolic step should not be underestimated. The CPSU, which for nearly three-quarters of the 20th century had enjoyed an absolute constitutional monopoly on ideas, had in effect sanctioned political competition and ideological challenge to its dogma. For the first time in Soviet history, citizens were allowed to form and join political parties other than the CPSU. pg11. JMD.

Collection of essays evolved from a series of lectures given at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, during 1968.