The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev
Subtitle: The Central Committee and Its Members, 1917-1991
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: April 28, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9780198297383
Subjects: Marxism & Communism; Political parties; Social history; 20th century; Political Science; Russia - History - 1917 To 1991; Soviet Union; Politics / Current Events; Rossiiskaia sotsial-demok; Politics/International Relations; Russia; Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union; International Relations - General; Political Process - Political Parties; Political Science / International Relations; Ã«TÃ¬SentralÂ§nyÃ¦i komitet; Elite (Social sciences); Government executives; Politics and government; Rossiæiskaëiìa soëtìsial-demokraticheskaëiìa rabochaëiìa partiëiìa (bol§shevikov); ëTìSentral§nyæi komitet
First sentence: The first five years after the Revolution were the 'heroic' period of Soviet history and the time when Lenin and an elite of underground veterans led the Communist Party and the Soviet state.
Description: "Although the product of a self-proclaimed proletarian revolution, Soviet Russia was always dominated by an elite. Basing itself upon nearly two thousand people who served on the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1917 to 1991, this is the first book to study the elite that ruled the world's largest country throughout the entire period of Soviet rule. It is also the first to make full use of the rich sources available since the collapse of Communism. The authors profile the elite as a whole and look more closely at fifteen individual members, identifying four elite generations. The book examines the evolving connection between Central Committee membership and administrative functions; the changing power and privileges of the elite and its relationship with the population; the Communist party and the top leaders; and the surprising extent to which the elite managed to maintain its position into the early years of post-communist Russia."--Jacket.