Table Of ContentIdeology, Politics,
and Government in
the Soviet Union
Ideology, Politics,
and Government in
the Soviet Union
AN INTRODUCTION
Fourth Edition
John A. Armstrong
University of Wisconsin
PRAEGER PUBLISHERS
New York
To Roy and Leona Taylor
Published in the United States of America in 1978
by Praeger Publishers
A Division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston
200 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
© 1962, 1967 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc.
© 1974 by Praeger Publishers, Inc.
© 1978 by Praeger Publishers,
A Division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-89732
ISBN: 0-03-040366-9
Printed in the United States of America
890 008 987654321
PREFACE
T O T H E F O U R T H ED ITIO N
When I wrote the first edition of this book fifteen years ago,
I believed there was a need for a brief, simplified survey of
the main features of the Soviet political system. Since that
time, the reception given the book suggests that it has, indeed,
served a purpose. I am convinced that a good part of the
book's utility has been due to its timeliness. The first edition
appeared less than a year after the Twenty-second Congress
of the Soviet Communist Party; Nikita Khrushchev was then
apparently at the height of his power. Two years later he was
overthrown, and the oligarchical leadership which succeeded
him systematically demolished his ideological and institutional
innovations. By 1967, when the second edition of this book
appeared, it was already clear that the confident progress
toward Communism which the Twenty-third Congress had
proclaimed was at an end. Except in the foreign policy sphere,
changes since 1967 have not been so spectacular. Instead,
minor institutional reorganizations, subtle ideological re-em-
phases, and gradual shifts in methods of social and economic
control have occurred. Paralleling these changes has been a
notable increase in the amount of information about the
nature of the Soviet system. The cumulative impact of systemic
changes and new information is so great that revised views of
the Soviet polity are imperative every few years.
Consequently, the fourth edition, like the third edition,
has been thoroughly revised so as to provide an introduction
focusing on current Soviet politics. As with the first edition,
for the sake of brevity I have omitted almost all history of
v
vi Preface
Soviet institutional development and political rivalry from
this volume. Government in the Soviet Union is no longer
a curiosity, and only in a very special sense can one describe
it as an experiment. Consequently, a preliminary look at
the system may well take for granted its relative stability,
its capacity as a going concern. It seems to me that the
historical examination of political institutions and behavior
can reasonably be postponed. The great danger of this type of
approach is the loss of historical perspective. I have tried to
avoid, or at least limit, this danger by treating the more remote
background of present-day Soviet society in the opening chap
ter. Furthermore, while institutions and behavior can be pre
sented out of their historical context, the same does not hold
true for Soviet ideology, which is incomprehensible except in
its developmental framework. Consequently, Chapter 2, though
not chronological in organization, contains numerous refer
ences to the precursors of the present Soviet ideologues.
Discussion of foreign policy also requires attention to the
radical transformations in the international environment
within which the Soviet regime operates. Increasingly over the
past decade, it has become apparent that Soviet foreign and
domestic policies are so closely related that consideration of
the latter is hardly possible without a close if brief examina
tion of foreign affairs. In earlier editions, this examination
was attempted in the form of brief interpolations, especially
in the concluding chapter. Now, it seems to me, a more syste
matic consideration of the interpenetration of foreign and
domestic policy, as presented in Chapter 8, is the most effec
tive way to sum up the underlying factors affecting the evolu
tion of Soviet policy during the 1970’s.
Both the pre-Soviet background treated in Chapter 1 and
the effects of ideology discussed in Chapter 2 are part of what
social science theorists increasingly agree on calling "political
culture." During the past twelve years, the conceptual frame
Preface vii
work and vocabulary of systems analysis and structural func
tionalism have rapidly become part of the common fiind of
knowledge of social science students. Even those who do not
intend to acquire specialized competence in analytic social
science have frequently obtained at least a general familiarity
with the approaches. Apart from certain general difficulties
involved in applying "whole-system” approaches, there are
special difficulties involved in adapting them to the examina
tion of Soviet politics.
I think there is widespread agreement that, of all major
categories of political systems, the totalitarian type is least
readily susceptible to systems analysis and still less to structural
functional analysis. Both approaches were developed primarily
from the consideration of pluralist societies like the United
States or from the adaptation of anthropological perspectives
on traditional societies. The application of these approaches
to an extremely centralized political system, dominated by a
small, relatively homogeneous elite adhering to an ideology
demanding the complete transformation of human nature,
requires fundamental reconsideration. The organic analogies
behind some of the newer social science models, which tend
to assume the existence of unconscious social processes tending
toward an equilibrium state, are particularly hard to relate to
the highly self-conscious goal orientation of a Communist elite.
On the other hand, such approaches make it equally difficult to
place adequate conceptual emphasis on the high degree of in
tra-elite conflict in Communist systems. For the time being,
therefore, it seems to me preferable to use an eclectic approach,
employing a "rational actor” model to interpret much of the
ideological development and policy formation in the U.S.S.R.
and a "conflict model” to examine elite political processes. As
a heuristic device, a systems conceptual point of view that
does not imply the assumption that there are systemswide
functions is used throughout. In specific sections—especially
viii Preface
the nationalities question and its relation to foreign policy—
a modified systems model with explicitly functionalist char
acteristics is utilized. Hopefully this eclectic treatment will
suggest the relevance of the newer social science approaches
and some of their vocabulary, without attempting what I
regard as the premature application of a single conceptual
framework.
I hope that the material presented on the nationalities
question, particularly, will be stimulating in a methodological
as well as a conceptual sense. Increasingly, quantitative com
parison of political and social units has become a significant
exercise for undergraduate students as well as an important
tool for more advanced researchers. Like language study,
training in statistical techniques and computer programing
becomes immensely more challenging for the social science
student if exercises utilize substantively significant contem
porary materials. While the usual approach is correlation
analysis of data relating to independent countries, comparative
quantitative analysis of sub-national units (as several excellent
studies of differences among American states demonstrate) is
equally appropriate. Ordinarily, the unspecialized student
wishing to pursue such analyses finds it difficult to obtain
reliable data standardized for comparable aspects of each
subdivision of any national political system other than the
United* States. Data on major Soviet nationalities (or on the
Union republics, which usually constitute their "home ter
ritories”) are becoming increasingly available. These data are
highly standardized across nationality units. Nevertheless,
specific problems such as access to scattered sources in Russian
and other Soviet languages and the need for specialized
evaluation and interpretation of the Soviet data have pre
vented their utilization in general comparative data books.
Recently Ellen P. Mickiewicz and her collaborators have pro
vided an impressive compilation of data on all facets of Soviet
Preface ix
society, Handbook of Soviet Social Science Data (Riverside,
N.J.: The Free Press, 1973). However, most of her data on
ethnic factors were—unavoidably—derived from the 1959 Soviet
census, whereas the appearance of 1970 census data calls for
a fundamental reappraisal of Soviet nationalities. The Table
of Major Nationalities in Chapter 7 of my book provides fully
evaluated data, including the results of the 1970 census and
many new data on Party membership. I hope that readers may
find these data useful not only for systematic comparison of
Soviet units but also in extending the universe of the readers*
general comparative investigations, particularly in the sphere
of social mobilization. Consequently, while the data are pre
sented in a form suitable for quantitative manipulation, I
have by no means exhausted the potential for analysis in my
verbal interpretation.
While expressing certain reservations concerning the use of
a single social science approach, I must emphasize, as I did in
the earlier editions of this book, that a dominantly legal or
institutional approach to the study of the Soviet system would
be utterly misleading. Emphasis on the constitutional system
of Soviet government, or even on the formal structure of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, would be inappropriate.
Consequently, I have confined myself to brief explanations of
what I consider to be the significance of formal structure in
both government and Party. Additional details on these struc
tures are contained in the organizational charts accompany
ing the text. These charts are not confined to the formal
structures of Party and government, but attempt to suggest
the dynamics of power relations as well as formal lines of
subordination. In a short book, illustrations of this kind are
exceptionally important. But even the most penetrating eluci
dation of structural features could not furnish complete in
sight into the extent of Soviet totalitarianism. Such insight
requires an understanding of the complex nationality question,
x Preface
earlier police terror as a background to contemporary repres
sion, and the pervasive control of the economy. Brief as my
treatment is, I have felt it essential to devote nearly a third
of the book to these subjects.
I hope that this work will serve as a useful elementary guide
to the Soviet political system; it is not a compendium of the
opinions of others or even an abridgment of my own. Today,
excellent specialized studies on nearly all aspects of the Soviet
system are very numerous. Consequently, although “Suggested
Readings" in die present edition contain twice as many items
as did the first edition, a comprehensive bibliography would
be impracticable. I can only plead that those books I
do list seem to me to be most useful for the general reader
and the nonspecialized student. While I rely on these works,
the emphasis and many of the conclusions I advance are my
own; no other writer on the Soviet system will accept all of
them without reservation. I am convinced that it is impossible
to avoid a personal approach if one is to present a coherent
analysis of Soviet politics, particularly in the international
sphere, and it should be pointed out that much of what is said
in this book is not established beyond dispute. I have tried to
indicate the most important points where the accuracy of
available data is doubtful or where divergence of informed
opinion exists, but conciseness of expression may, at times,
have led to unwarranted generalizations. Some readers may
question my evidence for certain statements. Elaborate foot
notes seemed out of place in so brief a survey. Where feasible,
I have indicated my sources, such as the proceedings of the
Soviet Communist Party Congresses, in the text. Because the
Nationalities Table, as indicated above, is intended to be a
data resource, I have provided precise footnote indications of
its sources.
Probably the general reader is more likely to be concerned
with over-all information about the workings of the Soviet
