In this unprecedented work on the status and role of
intellectuals in Soviet political life, a former Soviet sociologist
maps out the delicate, often paradoxical, ties between the
political regime and the creative thinkers who play a major part in
the movement toward modernization. Beginning with Stalin, Vladimir
Shlapentokh explores the mutual need and antagonism that have
existed between political leaders and intellectuals. What emerges
is a fascinating portrayal of the Soviet intellectual network since
the 1950s, which touches on such topics as the role of literature
and film in political opposition, levels of opposition (open,
legal, and private), and the spread of paranoia as fueled by the
KGB. Throughout he shows how the intellectual communityusually a
cohesive, liberal grouphas fared under Khrushchev's cautious
tolerance, Brezhnev's repressions, and now Gorbachev's
Glasnost.
Shlapentokh maintains, however, that under Glasnost freer speech
has revealed a more pronounced divergence between liberal and
conservative thinkers, and has allowed for open conservative
opposition to the reformatory measures of Gorbachev and the
liberals. He argues that one of the strongest checks on reform is
the growing presence of Russophilism--a movement supporting Russian
nationalism and Stalin's concept of socialism--among the political
elite and the masses. Although the role of the liberal
intellectuals in the late 1980s was less prominent than it was in
the 1960s, Shlapentokh asserts that they remain the major agent of
modernization in the Soviet Union, as well as in other socialist
countries.
Originally published in 1990.
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