Soviet Leadership in Transition

Fülszöveg

Soviet Leadership in Transition
Jerry F. Hough
For more than forty years Leonid Brezhnev and his associates—men now in their seventies—have held high political and administrative positions in the Soviet Union. Their era will soon end. They are members of a generation whose lives were shaped by the events of the Stalin period: the mass college admissions of ill-prepared students under the First Five-Year Plan; the Great Purge of 1937-38, which eliminated most of the old leaders and thrust these relatively young men to the fore; and of course World War II, during which many of the Brezhnev generation served at the front.
The members of the "postwar generation"—men in their forties and early fifties who now hold middle-level positions and will soon be moving up—differ greatly. They are far better educated, particularly in technical areas, and have a stronger interest in and better knowledge about the West than any previous generation in the Soviet Union. Too young to have fought... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Soviet Leadership in Transition
Jerry F. Hough
For more than forty years Leonid Brezhnev and his associates—men now in their seventies—have held high political and administrative positions in the Soviet Union. Their era will soon end. They are members of a generation whose lives were shaped by the events of the Stalin period: the mass college admissions of ill-prepared students under the First Five-Year Plan; the Great Purge of 1937-38, which eliminated most of the old leaders and thrust these relatively young men to the fore; and of course World War II, during which many of the Brezhnev generation served at the front.
The members of the "postwar generation"—men in their forties and early fifties who now hold middle-level positions and will soon be moving up—differ greatly. They are far better educated, particularly in technical areas, and have a stronger interest in and better knowledge about the West than any previous generation in the Soviet Union. Too young to have fought in the Second World War, they gained their work experience largely in the less-repressive post-Stalin era.
What effect will these and the other important generational differences described in this book have on Soviet policies and Soviet-American relations when the top leadership changes? Before trying to answer that question, Jerry F. Hough carefully examines the generational profiles of the various Soviet political, administrative, military, and foreign policy hierarchies, presenting many data never before available in the West. His conclusion is one of guarded optimism: even though present international problems are serious, the impending Soviet succession may indeed give the USSR and the United States a good opportunity to try to improve relations and reduce world tensions.
Jerry F. Hough is professor of political science and policy science at Duke University and a member of the academic council of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. The author of three other books on the Soviet Union, he wrote this volume as a member of the Brookings associated staff.
The Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C. Vissza