Democratization in Russia under Gorbachev, 1985–91

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Demokratizatsiya and the Voluntary Sector

   • Anne White

   Pages 1-18

3. 1985: the State in Crisis

   • Anne White

   Pages 19-40

4. 1985: Society in Crisis

   • Anne White

   Pages 41-65

5. Perestroika and the Immediate Causes of the Voluntary Sector’s Emergence

   • Anne White

   Pages 66-85

6. Charities

   • Anne White

   Pages 86-117

7. Self-Help Organizations

   • Anne White

   Pages 118-139

8. The Communist Response

   • Anne White

   Pages 140-157

9. Building Political and Civil Society

   • Anne White

   Pages 158-181

10. Conclusions and Epilogue

    • Anne White

    Pages 182-192

11. Back Matter

    Pages 193-260

    PDF

Self-help organizations and charities were the most numerous, but least-studied of pressure groups to emerge during perestroika . This book examines the social exclusion experienced before 1985 by non-working citizens, studies the pre-1985 disabled people's movement and its numerous unofficial, but non-dissident organizations, discusses why the Gorbachev leadership adopted the non-Soviet concept of 'charity', analyses the failure of local authorities after 1985 to stave off pluralism and defeat the voluntary organizations, and assesses how successfully the latter built the foundations of a civil society.

• communism
• democratization
• organization
• pluralism
• democracy

This monograph provides a detailed and fascinating survey of the emergence of the 'voluntary sector' in the USSR during the early 1980s and throughout the reign of M.S. Gorbachev as General Secretary. Russian Review

• University of Bath, UK

  Anne White

ANNE WHITE is Lecturer in Russian, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath. She is the author of De-Stalinization and the House of Culture: Declining State Control over Leisure in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, 1953-1989, and number of articles on the Russian.

Policies and ethics