The Collapse of Soviet Communism: A View from the Information Society

114 Pages·2003·3.446 MB·English

by  Manuel Castells, Emma Kiselyova

GRAD
COLLAPSE OF SOVIET
.C371
3 1995 MUNISM: A VIEW FROM
THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
MANUEL CASTELLS
iiiii! EMMA KISELYOVA
m
bi
i
THE COLLAPSE OF
SOVIET COMMUNISM
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Exploratory Essays / Number 2
The Collapse of
Soviet Communism:
A View from the
Information Society
MANUEL CASTELLS and EMMA KISELYOVA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY
Google Original from
Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 3 3
C 3 7 /
Figures 1 and 2 are reproduced with permission from Mark Harrison,
"Soviet Economic Growth since 1928: The Alternative Statistics of G. I.
Khanin," Europe-Asia Studies 45, 1 (1993): 145 and 149.
Figure 3 is reproduced with permission from Padma Desai, The Soviet
Economy: Problems and Prospects (London: Basil Blackwell, 1987), p. 9.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castells, Manuel.
The collapse of Soviet communism : a view from the information
society / Manuel Castells and Emma Kiselyova,
p. cm. — (Exploratory essays ; no. 2)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-87725-704^3 (pbk.)
1. Soviet Union—Economic policy. 2. Soviet Union—Economic
conditions. 3. Soviet Union—Politics and government. 4. Pere­
stroika. 5. Information technology—Soviet Union. 6. Technology
and state—Soviet Union. 7. Nationalism—Soviet Union—Republics.
8. Soviet Union—Social conditions.
I. Kiselyova, Emma. II. Title. III. Series.
HC333.C37 1995
338.947—dc20 95-13474
CIP
©1995 by the Regents of the University of California
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Lisa M. Bryant
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
\Ack\ -. j o 6
v\2(tf ^ *
4 | f. i ^
CONTENTS
Preliminary Remarks Vll
Introduction l
The Extensive Model of Economic Growth and the
Limits of Hyperlndustrlallsm 6
The Technology Question
27
The Abduction of Identity and the Crisis of Soviet
Federalism
40
The Last Perestroika
51
Nationalism, Democracy, and the Disintegration
of the Soviet State
Conclusion: The Scars of History, the Lessons
for Theory, the Legacy for Society
70
Notes
77
Bibliography
89
About the Authors
96
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PRELIMINARY REMARKS
This text is a revised version of a chapter in a forthcoming
book by Manuel Castells: The Net and the Self. Economy, Society, and
Culture in the Information Age, to be published by Basil Blackwell
(Oxford, England, and Cambridge, Massachusetts) in 1997. It can­
not be reproduced in any form without permission from Basil
Blackwell. International and Area Studies, University of California
at Berkeley, wishes to thank Basil Blackwell Publishers for accept­
ing advanced pre-publication of this chapter for the benefit of the
academic community.
The authors express their deepest gratitude to Tatyana Zas­
lavskaya, to Gregory Grossman, and to George Breslauer for their
thoughtful, extensive, and detailed comments on the draft of this
text.
The analysis presented in this monograph is based on two
sets of information. On the one hand, the field work research con­
ducted by the authors between 1989 and 1993 in Moscow,
Zelenograd, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, and Tyumen, in the frame­
work of a research program of the Instituto Universitario de
Sociologia, Universidad Autdnoma de Madrid, in cooperation
with the Russian Sociological Association; the Institute of Econom­
ics and Industrial Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, Si­
berian Branch; and the Center for Advanced Sociological Study,
Institute of Youth, Moscow. Three major research projects were
co-directed by Manuel Castells in cooperation, respectively, with
Professor O. I. Shkaratan, Professor V. I. Kuleshov; and Dr. S. Nata-
lushko. Specific references to each research project are given in the
endnotes corresponding to each subject matter. We thank Drs. Ku­
leshov, Natalushko, and Shkaratan for their valuable contribution
to our understanding of the Soviet Union. However, the intellec­
tual responsibility for the content of this monograph is entirely
• •
Vll
Google
Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
viii Preliminary Remarks
ours. On the other hand, this text also relies on documentary, bib­
liographic, and statistical sources on the Soviet Union collected
and analyzed by Emma Kiselyova.
Google Original from
Digitized by
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PRAYER
Give me illness for years on end,
Shortness of breath, insomnia, fever.
Take away my child and friend,
The gift of song, my last believer.
I pray according to Your rite,
After many wearisome days, —
That the storm cloud over Russia might
Turn white and bask in glory of rays.
Anna Akhmatova, 1915
ix
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN