Origins of the Crisis in the U.S.S.R.: Essays on the Political Economy of a Disintegrating System

Description

Hillel Ticktin has been one of the most controversial figures in Soviet studies for 25 years. His assertions that the Soviet economy was hopelessly inefficient, that the ruble was a sham, and that the elite was desperate once sounded outrageous. Ticktin consistently argued that perestroika would fail. In his view the USSR was and remained inherently Stalinist. It might lurch back and forth between reformist and reactionary leadership factions but, the system could not evolve, nor could it be restructured. Ultimately, it could only disintegrate, and when it did, the workers would hold the balance. This collection of essays offers a thorough sample of his views. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface 1. Introduction: The Aims and Achievements of Gorbachev 2. Theory and Concept Western Sovietology The Concepts Used in This Work 3. The Nature of Social Control in the USSR The Question of Ideology Stalinism and Its Disintegration Atomization 4. The Nonpolitical Politics of the Soviet Elite Factions and the Emergence of Opposing Currents and Parties The Ligachev–Yeltsin Rivalry The Nature of the Soviet Elite and Its Factions The Nature of the Party and Political Differences The Secret Police The Soviet Ruling Group Characteristics of the Soviet Elite The Soviet Elite in the Context of History 5. The Intelligentsia The Political Economy of the Intelligentsia The Debate on History and Rehabilitations Legality and the Rule of Law 6. The Working Class The Sale of Labor Power The Labor Process and the Changes Demanded The Question of Class Reforms and the Process of Establishing Control over the Working Class The Position of the Workers and Perestroika The Nature of Actual and Potential Divisions of the Workers The Necessity for Control Measures New Measures Introduced to Control Workers Economic Reforms and Their Effect on the Worker The Necessary Failure of the Economic Reforms 7. The Nature of the Soviet Political Economy Control over Labor in the Brezhnev Period The Laws and Contradictions of the System Growth and Disintegration 8. The Present Economic Crisis in the USSR The Law of Value and Its Absence in the USSR The Nature of the Contradiction within the Product Consequences of the Defective Product The Underlying Reasons for the Crisis The Problem of Technology in Historical Perspective The Contradictions between Departments One and Two The Increasing Power of Labor and Its Effects 9. Perestroika and the Disintegration of the USSR The Policy of Reorganization The Pseudo-market Reforms The Market, Prices, and Social Relations The Ruble, Real Money, and a Genuine Market Social Solutions The Redirection of Foreign Policy The Disintegration of the USSR The Inevitable Failure of the Market Solution Why the Market Solution Cannot Work The Market Socialism Argument 10. Where Are We Going? The Nature of the Transitional Epoch Index About the Author