Was the Geopolitical Catastrophe of the USSR Man-Made?

Was the Geopolitical Catastrophe of the USSR Man-Made?


Toshchenko Zh.T.

Corresponding Member of RAS, Head of Department of Theory and History of Sociology, Russian State University for the Humanities; Chief Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia zhantosch@mail.ru

ID of the Article:


The paper is written under RNF project No. 18-18-00024.

Rubric: 1991: A Look at Events 30 Years Later

For citation:

Toshchenko Zh.T. Was the Geopolitical Catastrophe of the USSR Man-Made?. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2021. No 8. P. 3-13


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Abstract

The article analyzes causes, conditions and factors of the 1991 events, which became the starting point for the collapse of the USSR, liquidation of the first socialist state and rejected the possibility to realize socialism and communism ideas. Various attempts are analyzed from different worldview and ideological positions to explain the course that returned Russia to the capitalist path of development. Challenging and rejecting many of these explanations, created under the influence of both purposeful and speculative reasoning and spontaneous conscientious delusions, the article focuses on the absence in most publications and political statements of an analysis of such key factors as ignoring the will of the people and scholarly conclusions and recommendations that focused on rational, balanced and reasonable means and methods of overcoming the crisis-ridden state of society. A significant place is given to the subjective factor – poverty of imagination, limited vision, primitive thought of those ruling the country who failed to offer a scientifically grounded development strategy. As a result, the country evolved in the framework neither of a revolutionary, nor an evolutionary path, but embarked on a turbulent, chaotic and contradictory path of development leading to what the author calls society of trauma. In conclusion, it is stated that the geopolitical catastrophe was largely man-made, caused by subjective factors that played a decisive role in the destruction of the great country. These conclusions are based on the results of 1985–1991 all-Union studies of social consciousness carried out by sociologists of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU.


Keywords
USSR; socialism; capitalism; perestroika; revolution; evolution; social consciousness; soviet man

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