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Leonid Brezhnev's fragmentary notes to himself offer a valuable but unexplored source for insights into his eighteen-year rule, his interests, and his health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disruptive effects of postcommunist instability have raised the approval ratings given by the general public to Leonid Brezhnev and have prompted scholarly reappraisals of his regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased Jewish emigration from the USSR, itself a product of détente, threatened to undermine improvements in the Soviet government's relationship with the United States as the Communist Party tried to rein it in. The solution was to leave laws on the books but quietly ignore them in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive efforts by the Khrushchev regime to destroy the power and appeal of organized religion as the USSR made its transition from socialism to communism, the Russian Orthodox Church survived. Although the antireligion campaign succeeded in cutting the number of churches, monasteries, and ordained clergy, the population responded by becoming more religious. As a result, by the late 1960s gifts to religious organizations and numbers of baptisms had risen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Nikita Khrushchev usually receives credit for the Soviet shift to light industry and agricultural reforms during the Thaw of the late 1950s and the early 1960s, this article discerns precursors of the new economic approach in the period immediately following World War II. The political infighting that characterized the late Stalin years and the Thaw played out, in part, in support for or opposition to the proposed economic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nikita Khrushchev's famous denunciation of Stalin during his secret speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956 may have been motivated more by internal power plays against his political rivals than by a desire to expose Stalin's "cult of personality." The denunciation surprised foreign visitors and resident party officials alike. Their scramble to attack Stalin's henchmen (Lavrentii Beria and Georgii Malenkov in particular), while shielding Stalin himself, explains the contradictory, halting aspects of the ensuing de-Stalinization campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soviet soccer became a favorite target of bureaucratic wrangling in the post-Stalin era, pitting the local authorities against the Central Committee and its adjunct Sports Committee in arguments over players, league assignments, and conduct both on and off the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, who ruled from 1953-1964. The focus of the article are reforms of the Soviet Union undertaken by Khrushchev, especially on the textiles industry. By focusing on the development of the chemical industry, the author states, the outward appearance of the Soviet people changed during the 1950s and 1960s. Other topics include the chemicalization of the national economy and fashionable clothing that appeared after World War II.

The article discusses the Soviet Union in the last three decades of its existence, presenting a "cultural biography of things." Particularly, the author examines the life span of underwear and outerwear in Soviet society. Topics of discussion include a sociology of everyday things, the gap that existed between the producers of items and the consumers of items, and the probability that every Soviet family had a Singer sewing machine. Also discussed are attempts of Soviet consumers to adapt to material shortages in Soviet society.

The article discusses the Soviet Union, examining the consumer culture that existed in the country from 1953-1982 under the leadership of Soviet Premiers Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. Hints and recommendations given to consumers on how to extend the life of consumer goods such as toothbrushes and bicycle tires are discussed. Topics include homemade glass de-icing, eliminating the difference between the domestic space and the scientific space, and using a scientific approach to keep nail polish usable.