Moscow and the Non-Russian Republics in the Soviet Union: Nomenklatura, Intelligentsia and Centre-Periphery Relations

Description

This book examines what came to determine the local power and character of the Communist party-state at the level of the national non-Russian republics. It discusses how, although the Soviet Union looked centralised and monolithic to outsiders, local party-states formed their own fiefdoms and had very considerable influence over many policies areas within their republics. It argues that local party-states were shaped by two decisive relationships - to the central Communist party in Moscow and to local constituencies, especially to the local intelligentsia and the creative professions who constituted the local party-states’ biggest potential adversaries. It shows how local party-states negotiated stability and their own survival, and contends that the effects of "Sovietisation" continue to be felt in the independent states which succeeded the republics, particularly in the field of the relationship with Moscow, which remains of immense importance to these countries. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of tables Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Purging in the Khrushchev era: ‘Red cardinals’ and nationalism in the Soviet Republics 2. The formation and development of the Soviet Latvian Nomenklatura: Path dependency, cleavages, and imposed unanimity 3. Patterns of succession: Top party elite recruitment in Soviet Moldavia and centre-periphery relations, 1940–1991 4. The transformist: The evolution and adaptability of Sharaf Rashidov’s regime in Soviet Uzbekistan 5. The Belarusian Soviet nomenklatura: A political history, 1947–1994 6. The Soviet nomenklatura and cultural opposition during the Brezhnev period in Lithuania 7. Ukraine: Falling in and out of Moscow’s grace 8. Between centre and periphery: The Gamsakhurdia and Kostava affair 9. Pragmatic political practice: The Estonian Communist Party, the intelligentsia, and Moscow Index