1. T.H. Rigby on Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics / S. Fortescue -- 2. Institutionalization and personalism in the policy-making porcess of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia / S. Fortescue -- 3. The boss and his team : Stalin and the inner circle, 1925-33 / S. Fitzpatrick -- 4. Building the communist future : legitimation and the Soviet city / G. Gill -- 5. Legitimation and legitimacy in Russia revisited / L. Holmes -- 6. Perestroika as revolution from above / A. Brown -- 7. How much did popular disaffection contribute to the collapse of the USSR? / P. Reddaway -- 8. Pantouflage à la russe : the recruitment of Russian political and business elites / E. Huskey -- Conclusion / S. Fortescue
Summary
Seven leading specialists present chapters devoted to key themes in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Those themes include: the personal versus the institutional in the political process; legitimacy and legitimation; and change and collapse of a mono-organisational society. While the book focuses on these major themes, individual chapters deal with wide-ranging and even unusual cases: Graeme Gill analyses the legitimating functions of Moscow's architecture, Sheila Fitzpatrick uses the archives to draw a picture of Stalin "the boss" dealing with his closest colleagues, Eugene Huskey provides a detailed description of post-Soviet Russian pantouflage, and Archie Brown and Peter Reddaway present their different takes on Gorbachev and the Soviet collapse. Stephen Fortescue provides an overview of policy-making processes from Lenin and Putin, and Leslie Holmes updates the concept of goal-rational legitimacy."-- Provided by publisher
