Suchergebnisse

Human rights; extent of emigration and role for the U.S. in influencing Soviet policy.

THE DECISION BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S CENTRAL COMMITTEE TO SCRAP ARTICLE SIX OF THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION IS OF REVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE. IT FORMALIZES THE END OF MARXISM-LENINISM ACCORDING TO STALIN AND HIS SUCCESSORS. IT LEGITIMIZES THE BEGINNINGS OF POLITICAL PLURALISM IN THE USSR. AND IT OPENS THE PROSPECT OF A MAJOR POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FUTURE OF THAT TORMENTED NATION.

The article aims to broaden the understanding of Soviet politics as a form of colonialism and to deploy the same conceptual tools used in post-colonial critiques that have been typically reserved for critiquing European control of 'distant' lands, both in temporal and spatial dimensions. Closely examining Soviet politics in Mongolia, the article conceptualises the Soviet policies across the vast Soviet-sphere with the post-colonial theoretical framework. Conceptually, the article juxtaposes the post-colonial treatment of the Soviet politics with high modernism. Under Soviet direction and control, Mongolia was profoundly transformed over seven decades from an impoverished pastoral society at the beginning of the twentieth century to a highly ordered and structured society. This social, spatial, administrative transformation was more vivid and radical than in many former Soviet-sphere countries, especially those countries that had long been settled and urbanised.

The article discusses the concept of multiple and entangled modernity that is proposed instead of universal Western-type modernity that is criticized by the modernity discourse. We argue that the concept of multiple modernity is broadened by the concept of entangled modernity. The latter explains the multiplicity of modernities and the theoretical possibility of a certain universal model of modern society through the global interaction of societies. From the point of view of entangled modernity, a certain universality of societies arises not from the structural evolution of society itself, but from the interaction of modern and pre-modern societies. The concept of entangled modernity allows one to analytically distinguish between the Soviet modernity and the Soviet period modernity, which can be used to describe the modern Lithuanian society of the Soviet period. The modern Lithuanian society of the Soviet period is the result of an interaction of the modern Lithuanian society with the Soviet project of modern society that was forcibly implemented by local social agents of the occupied society.

Government response to ecological concerns in the USSR in the Soviet & post-Soviet eras is examined. After years of neglect, ecological concerns emerged as public issues in the USSR only in the final years of the Soviet regime as a result of glasnost & the ensuing increase in public participation in the policy process, reduction in state secrecy, & adoption of less bureaucratic styles of decision making. Changes in the decision-making process resulted in contradictory demands on the system, particularly from the emerging nationalist movements within the country; consequently, little progress in abating environmental concerns was achieved. Upon the dissolution of the USSR, the former Soviet states inherited these environmental problems, but had few resources to combat them. At present the region's economic concerns are receiving the most attention from governmental entities, & environmental concerns have low priority. D. Generoli