Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Boris Yel'Tsin and the Russian Revolution of 1991

Boris Yel'Tsin and the Russian Revolution of 1991 22 DONALD W. TREADGOLD (Seattle, WA, USA) BORIS YEL'TSIN AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1991 The Historical Context: How do current events in Russia relate to the upheavals of the past? The English Revolution of the seventeenth century, the French Revolution of the eighteenth century and the Russian Revolution of this century were attempts to uproot long-existing systems, not to undo any particular event or series of events from their countries' history. But the chief characteristic of the Russian Revolution of 1991 was its aim to reverse the events of October 1917 and the system that emerged from it, without having a clear positive goal in mind. Many outsiders believed that either the intent of the leaders or the natural outcome would be democracy and a market economy. Such an in- tent was unambiguously held only by a small coterie; what is t.o be the "natu- ral" outcome remains obscure. Both optimists, who hail the overcoming of difficulties, and pessimists, who regard them as insuperable, may maintain that Russia never had any democracy in its past. That is a dubious assertion. Full-blown democracy anywhere is a product of only the last century or so. Partial self-government, of the sort http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review Brill

Boris Yel'Tsin and the Russian Revolution of 1991

The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review , Volume 21 (1): 7 – Jan 1, 1994

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/boris-yel-tsin-and-the-russian-revolution-of-1991-YjwPzsnWkj

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1075-1262
eISSN
1876-3324
DOI
10.1163/187633294x00070
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

22 DONALD W. TREADGOLD (Seattle, WA, USA) BORIS YEL'TSIN AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1991 The Historical Context: How do current events in Russia relate to the upheavals of the past? The English Revolution of the seventeenth century, the French Revolution of the eighteenth century and the Russian Revolution of this century were attempts to uproot long-existing systems, not to undo any particular event or series of events from their countries' history. But the chief characteristic of the Russian Revolution of 1991 was its aim to reverse the events of October 1917 and the system that emerged from it, without having a clear positive goal in mind. Many outsiders believed that either the intent of the leaders or the natural outcome would be democracy and a market economy. Such an in- tent was unambiguously held only by a small coterie; what is t.o be the "natu- ral" outcome remains obscure. Both optimists, who hail the overcoming of difficulties, and pessimists, who regard them as insuperable, may maintain that Russia never had any democracy in its past. That is a dubious assertion. Full-blown democracy anywhere is a product of only the last century or so. Partial self-government, of the sort

Journal

The Soviet and Post-Soviet ReviewBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1994

There are no references for this article.