This book investigates rapid societal change in Russia during the early 1990s. The story of the anthropologist (author) and the people he studied reveals cultural similarities and differences between them. Russians and Latvians taught the author about the Soviet Union, its people, and its cultures. Formal axiology provides a novel way to access their changing values.

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Countless studies have assessed the dramatic reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, but their analysis of the impact on European communism has focused overwhelmingly on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations. This ambitious collection takes a much broader view, reconstructing and evaluating the historical trajectories of glasnost and perestroika on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Moving beyond domestic politics and foreign relations narrowly defined, the research gathered here constitutes a transnational survey of these reforms’ collective impact, showing how they were variably received and implemented, and how they shaped the prospects for “proletarian internationalism” in diverse political contexts.

Gorbachev and Perestroika goes beyond most other books on perestroika by covering not only the economy but also personnel policy, culture and foreign affairs. It presents a thorough and broad-ranging assessment and analysis of the Soviet Union at a time when the initial excitement of reform is expanding in cultural and intellectual affairs, radical economic experiments are being tried and political opposition is being more openly discussed.

Since Gorbachev came to power much has happened in the Soviet Union. This book provides a comprehensive and composite analysis of the reforms that have taken place in the Soviet Union since 1985.

Focuses on the six years of perestroika in the Soviet Union and suggests that many of the problems confronting the new states were first created during this time. The book tries to explore and explain some of these developments, covering events up to August 1992.

Contains primary source material.