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Gorbachev and the End of Utopia in the Soviet Union

Gorbachev and the End of Utopia in the Soviet Union ALFRED EVANS, JR. (Fresno, CA, U.S.A.) GORBACHEV AND THE END OF UTOPIA IN THE SOVIET UNION A number of years ago a Soviet historian was reported to have remarked wryly, "The future remains the same. It's the past that is always changing." His words were inspired not only by the periodic necessity of rewriting history to fit the dic- tates of each new political leadership, but also by the certainty that the one most firmly fixed star in the constellation of public discourse in the USSR was the assurance that Communism was the destination toward which Soviet society was inexorably moving. Karl Marx had said very little about the "higher phase" of Communist society, which Soviet sources came to call simply "Communism," other than to indicate that after a period of transition the distinctions between social classes would dis- appear, the coercive functions of the state would become super- fluous and society would be able to distribute materials benefits to each person according to need. The standard doctrine of Soviet leaders from 1936 until Gorbachev's administration was that their society was in the first phase, which those leaders la- beled "socialism," and that the further development of social- http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Soviet and Post Soviet Review Brill

Gorbachev and the End of Utopia in the Soviet Union

The Soviet and Post Soviet Review , Volume 19 (1): 217 – Jan 1, 1992

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1992 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1075-1262
eISSN
1876-3324
DOI
10.1163/187633292X00126
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ALFRED EVANS, JR. (Fresno, CA, U.S.A.) GORBACHEV AND THE END OF UTOPIA IN THE SOVIET UNION A number of years ago a Soviet historian was reported to have remarked wryly, "The future remains the same. It's the past that is always changing." His words were inspired not only by the periodic necessity of rewriting history to fit the dic- tates of each new political leadership, but also by the certainty that the one most firmly fixed star in the constellation of public discourse in the USSR was the assurance that Communism was the destination toward which Soviet society was inexorably moving. Karl Marx had said very little about the "higher phase" of Communist society, which Soviet sources came to call simply "Communism," other than to indicate that after a period of transition the distinctions between social classes would dis- appear, the coercive functions of the state would become super- fluous and society would be able to distribute materials benefits to each person according to need. The standard doctrine of Soviet leaders from 1936 until Gorbachev's administration was that their society was in the first phase, which those leaders la- beled "socialism," and that the further development of social-

Journal

The Soviet and Post Soviet ReviewBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1992

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