Moscow: A View from Below

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 36, S. 311-317

Abstract

The USSR today is in deep crisis, & the political contradictions are far more severe, acute, & intractable than Western press coverage indicates. Mikhail Gorbachev's revolution from above has been slow in gaining momentum in large measure because it has so far failed to bring about radical changes from below -- a revolution in the mentalites (mentalities) & public conduct of Soviet citizens. Gorbachev needs mass mobilization to carry out a vast restructuring of economic, political, social, & cultural institutions, which is stimulated by policies initiated from above, but sustained over the long term by institutional structures that permit autonomous political & social action & a broad sphere for political discourse. Gorbachev's conception of popular participation places a high premium on the very autonomy of word & deed that the whole weight of the Stalinist system managed to crush for nearly sixty years, which is precisely the area where Gorbachev's strategy for perestroika (restructuring) has run into the obstacles of bureaucratic intransigence, & a complex set of popular attitudes -- eg, civic cynicism, inertia, & outright resistance -- which are bred & reinforced by the experience of everyday life. In an effort to surmount these attitudes, Gorbachev has promoted various reforms designed to democratize party & state institutions &, concomitantly, to encourage the formation of voluntary associations. These unofficial groups provide an important indicator of fundamental changes at the grass-roots level, as the locus of new kinds of attitudes & practices in public life. It is argued that the state itself must create a new civil society by opening up a broad sphere for independent organizations & providing the legal & institutional support for these activities. Modified AA