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Le 13 decembre 1981, le general Jaruzelski imposait en Pologne l'etat de guerre, suite aux revendications du peuple polonais autour du syndicat Solidarnosc. Pour beaucoup de leaders occidentaux, la police polonaise Etait preferable aux chars sovietiques. Parmi eux, le President francais Francois Mitterrand qui trouvait Jaruzelski comme un vrai patriote pour avoir sauve son pays d'une invasion de l'Armee Rouge. Le gouvernement Mauroy (ou siegeaient quatre ministres communistes) n'avait aucune intention d'intervenir militairement contre la Pologne, mais avait demande la liberation des personnes incarcerees, dont le leader Solidarnosc, Lech Walesa, et la reprise du dialogue entre les parties representatives du peuple polonais. Malgre l'impression d'une reponse desinteresee, la France ne cessera d'offir aide humanitaire en nourriture et aide economique au peuple polonais tout au long des annees '80. A travers une societe civique forte et active, regroupant artistes (Simone Signoret et Yves Montand) et intellectuels (Jorge Semprun, Michel Foucault, Jacques Le Goff et autres) et des contributions finacieres gouvernamentales, la France reussissait d'etablir une solidarite a la fois symbolique et concrete avec un pays appele autrefois << la France du Nord. >> Le cas francais nous montre comment une intervention humanitaire peut etre une reussite meme si elle n'implique pas une dimension militaire. Key words: Solidarnosc, syndicalisme, autogestion, dissidence, la CFDT, aide humanitaire, Le contexte politique de la France pendant la crise polonaise En 1980 lorsque la crise polonaise commencait, la France se trouvait dans des negociations complexes avec l'URSS pour la construction [...]

When President George H.W. Bush gave his 'A Europe Whole and Free' speech in Mainz, (West) Germany in May 1989, the assumptions of the time suggested a clear path in [...]

This article uses recently declassified archival documents from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) concerning the Calcutta Youth Conference of February 1948. This evidence contradicts speculation that 'orders from Moscow' were passed to Southeast Asian communists at this time, helping to spark the rebellions in Indonesia, Malaya, Burma and the Philippines later that year. Secret working papers now available to researchers show no signs that the Soviet leadership planned to call upon Asian communists to rise up against their national bourgeois governments at this point in time. This article outlines the real story behind Soviet involvement in events leading up to the Calcutta Youth Conference, showing both a desire to increase information and links, and yet also a degree of caution over the prospects of local parties., Introduction There has been considerable speculation among historians of the Cold War and of Soviet policy towards Indonesia, right up to the present, concerning the communist-sponsored Southeast Asian Youth Conference [...]

This study contributes to the literature on demographic adjustments to societal crises by examining ethnicspecific probabilities of having first, second, and third marital births in late-twentieth-century Kazakhstan. Discrete-time logit models, employing data from the 1995 and 1999 Kazakhstan Demographic and Health Surveys, are fitted. The results show that the probability of a first birth responded to societal cataclysms of the post-Soviet transition, but this response was most manifest and enduring in the ethnic group that had been most demographically advanced and that also found itself most politically and economically vulnerable. While ethnic differences in the probabilities of second and third births were generally more pronounced than in the probability of first birth, the pace of their post-Soviet decline was relatively uniform across all ethnic groups. Keywords: fertility; ethnicity; Soviet Union; Kazakhstan; Central Asia; societal crisis

The slant towards particularism rather than universalism is identified as a distinctive aspect of the post-Soviet information culture.

The cause behind the crash to reform the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the main reason for the breakdown of the Soviet System, is examined, particularly, the matter of party renewal at the 28th Party Congress of 1990, and it is suggested that absence of an organized movement by the reformers and indecisiveness of Gorbachev led to the collapse.

Abstract: The political trajectories of the post-Soviet states are varied, with democracy being the outcome in only a minority of these countries. The different outcomes are striking, given the similarity [...]

The value of the so-called priority approach for understanding the mechanisms that helped create the spatial structure of the Soviet/socialist city is explored and the changes in priority status that the different urban functions were subjected to are highlighted. A new model of the development of the Soviet/socialist city that fuses the priority approach with a wide survey of previous scholarly work done in the field is proposed.

Most Americans in the 1920s and 1930s were unaware of the crimes committed in the Soviet Union. Even today, the full extent of the carnage is unknown. This essay explores the ways in which Presidents Kennedy and Reagan dealt with the contrast between the open societies of the West and the severely damaged civil societies of the Soviet bloc through the rhetorical presidency. Key speeches throughout the two administrations stressed the use of presidential rhetoric as a way of challenging the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the USSR. For both Presidents, the key rhetorical moment came in West Berlin, in 1963 and 1987, respectively. Using comparable language, Kennedy and Reagan spoke of the hope offered by West Berlin to those suffering under communist rule. The highlight came when Reagan challenged the Soviet leaders to tear down the Wall separating the city. Ironically, the victory over Soviet bloc communism has not led to the elimination of communist regimes, notably China. That chapter in the struggle against communism remains yet to be written.

This article explores the complex dynamics that informed Soviet policies on the western frontier--the territories stretching between the Baltic and Black Seas annexed by the Soviets in 1939-40--and involves several interlocking aspects: the permeability of borders prone to irredentist pressures by socialist satellites, mass tourism from the West and the Soviet bloc, and the increasing flow of information from foreign media sources; the conflicting sentiments that led locals to embrace or reject reforms based on different pre-Soviet memories, the experiences of the Second World War, postwar sovietisation policies and the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956; the impact of Romanian and Czechoslovak policies on the authorities and populations of the western republics and the Kremlin's concerns over the region as key factors in the decision to invade Czechoslovakia; and, finally, the domestic and international consequences for an aging, self-styled revolutionary regime choosing between youthful reform and stagnant stability.

The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt in Moscow marked one of the most euphoric moments in Russian history. For centuries dictators had ruled Russia using force to suppress [...]

High-level discussions that preceded issuance of the new Soviet Family Law in 1944 are analyzed based on the declassified Soviet archives, revealing N.S. Khrushchev, the future Soviet leader, as the measure's author. By comparing the internal and public texts, much can be discovered about the interrelationship of reproduction, language, and politics in the postwar USSR.

The experiences of the Soviet Army at the Nazi death camp is discussed highlighting the interacting currents of official, public and private efforts to grapple with the legacy of the Soviet terror and the lessons the world should learn from the Holocaust. It is argued that Vladimir Putin's governance of 'managed democracy', though relatively less authoritarian and more democratic than Stalinism, it has not been able to provide Russians with material prosperity, public safety and restoration of pride and power enjoyed by the Soviet empire.

Taiwan's relations with Soviet Union during the Cold War are examined. The official and secret contacts between Moscow and Taipei from 1949 to 1988 are discussed.

The reasons for deterioration of post-communist government infrastructure after the collapse of old regimes in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union are discussed.

The link between the idealized image of Soviet childhood and Stalinism is discussed. It is noted that, while the guardianship in the Stalin cult failed to achieve the homogeneity and caused disillusions among children, it provided them with a sense of security and pride that contributed to the widespread belief that the Soviet Union was the best place to live in on earth.

An analysis of rationality of Stalinist rule, describing its operation in and consequences for one sphere of everyday life while focusing on the interaction between economic planning and regional officials' behavior during second five-year plan is presented. Evolution of mass purge due to enforcement of political control over the peripheral economy is discussed.

This article examines reasons for the demise of the USSR, suggesting that problems in international relations were more culpable than economic factors, and that 'perestroika' triggered nationalistic forces, along with weaknesses within the center of government itself; the author suggests that the processes in mass consciousness and 'shadow' forces beyond the intelligentsia and reformers disposed the central authority, and that these forces included interest groups from the managerial and republic elites. Issues include a definition of the economic managerial elites, national elites, social and cultural prerequisites for the mobilization of public opinion, post-Soviet perspectives, and national statehood in the transitional period.

This article explores the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death in 1948 of Central Committee Secretary and Politburo member Andrei Zhdanov, who had been posed to succeed Josef Stalin after the Second World War. The author suggests that Zhdanov's death was probably natural, but still provided an opportunity for his rivals in the Politburo to settle political scores with his allies, and remembrances of Zhdanov disappeared with the fall of these allies.

The authors respond to Robert English's criticism of their research on the causes and consequence of the end of the Cold War in the former Soviet Union, including his suggestion that they showed bias in their selection of source materials. The article concludes that English's criticism is misplaced because he misunderstood their research designs; also, they suggest that major progress has been made to explain the end of the Cold War, the need to move toward a more probablistic approach, designs for their research, and English's concern with hard-line alternatives to Soviet retrenchment.

This article examines Stephen Brooks and William Wohlforth's theory on the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War which focused on the economic sources of the Soviet Union's embrace of a new foreign policy and its retreat from confrontation; the author criticizes biases in the writers' selection of sources used for their theory and their overrelance on hindsight. Issues include economic decline and Soviet old thinking, Mikhail Gorbachev's role in the Soviet Union's retreat and new-thinking, the differing interpretations of old and new thinkers, and the problems and possibilities of assimilating new evidence of the decline of the Soviet Union.

This article examines the significance of the Soviet regime's ideology of democracy. The author, focusing on popular participation in administration, the rule of the proletariat, control over the economy, and workplace democracy, argues Soviet democracy contributed to the demise of the Soviet Union by undermining its political and economic stability.

This article discusses Stalinist literature and its use of coercion and propaganda to promote Soviet ideology and popular conformity. The author suggests that personal biographies became politicized in the early Soviet years, and studies the textual genres of diary writing and autobiographical narratives for influences of the revolution.

This article discusses the ideological background of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, emphasizing its roots in Marxist-Leninism and democratic centralism that placed inordinate control in the hands of the party leader; Mikhail Gorbachev's ideology as party leader undercut the role of the party elites, weakening the state and leading to the USSR's downfall. The resurgence of the Communist Party is attributed to its use of Leninist doctrines of party organization and cultivation of nationalism.

This article examines Marxist ideals of science within the framework of the demise of Communism in the Soviet Union. The author argues that three Marxist principles, 'being determines consciousness,' the Asiatic Mode of Production, and 'the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas,' still require analysis in context of 20th century Soviet Communism and its decline.

The influence of business and industry over the media in Russia is examined. The author argues journalism has long been under the control of politicians, and with the economic shift Russia is experiencing the media is quickly coming under the control of industry interests motivated by profit.

This article examines the relationship between lives of Russian writers and government and industry. The author, a writer himself, discusses the harshness of the Communist Soviet government and the censorship under which the writer suffered, and todays market economy, to which the writer must cater.

This article discusses the Russian government under the Stalin regime. The author analyzes government documents recently made public and asserts that after the war Stalin had to shut down government and consolidate power from within, however, it was short-lived and the Soviet Union was soon under the grip of an oppressive regime in which the ideals of nationalism played a key role.

In light of significant conceptual and methodological difficulties that face comparative corruption research, we propose to treat comparative anti-corruption policy as worthy of study in its own right. By using measures of enforcement activity as evidence of anticorruption, rather than flawed proxy measures of corruption, we endeavor to surmount some of obstacles to comparing radically different political systems. We compare anti-corruption activity in the US and the USSR and elaborate three theoretical perspectives-emphasizing political, institutional, and symbolic factors- and show how each might improve our understanding of anti-corruption policy in the two nations. By applying these three frameworks to the Russian republic, we assess anti-corruption policy in an unsettled, emerging political system and suggest that the dynamics that underlie Russia's anti-corruption policy will more closely resemble US policy than was the case in the USSR.

The Soviet Union created the Extraordinary Investigatory Commission in May 1917 to investigate alleged wrong doings by former government officials. Vladimir Lenin testified before the Commission in 1917 about evidence he presented to the Russian Duma in 1914 about fellow Bolshevik Roman Malinoskii, but the 1917 testimony was not known until 1990. Three versions of Lenin's 1914 testimony have been recovered since 1990, and the discrepancies in the versions are examined, as are the conditions that led to the creation of the commission.