Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

29 results

Page 1 of 2

  • 2 - Revolutionary change in the Third World: recent Soviet reassessments

  • from PART 1 - THE THIRD WORLD IN SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY
  • Edited by Roger E. Kanet, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book:
    The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World
    Published online:
    06 July 2010
    Print publication:
    23 June 1988, pp 23-41

  • Summary

    An increasingly sober and far-ranging review of the nature of Third World radicalism and its relationship to scientific socialism marks a significant change in Soviet perceptions about the USSR's ability to manipulate anti-imperialism to its advantage. Dating from about 1980, this re-examination is related to Moscow's difficulties in imposing a Marxist regime in Afghanistan, the unexpected turn of the Iranian revolution from an anti-American upheaval into Islamic fundamentalism, and the mounting concern for the performance of the Soviet economy.

    Official statements give only partial and conflicting evidence of an altered outlook. In the past three years, for example, the May Day slogans, which reaffirm the regime's domestic and foreign policy objectives, have given up many ritualistic claims about revolutionary change in the Third World. They no longer single out the radical states that have chosen the path of socialist orientation; the adjective “invincible” has been dropped from the reference to the Soviet Union's alliance with the national liberation movements; and the “struggle against imperialism” is not mentioned as the goal of international solidarity. Yet, these claims have not disappeared altogether from other pronouncements.

    To get a better sense of the on-going reassessment one must turn to the writings of Soviet experts on the Third World. Many of them are prominent in academic and Party institutions that help formulate foreign policy. Among these people the change of mood is unmistakable.

  • Revolutionary Change in the Third World: Recent Soviet Assessments

  • Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier
  • Journal:
    World Politics / Volume 38 / Issue 3 / April 1986
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 June 2011, pp. 415-434
    Print publication:
    April 1986

  • A reexamination of revolutionary processes in the developing countries indicates mounting doubts among Soviet academic specialists that radical third-world policies will redound to the U.S.S.R.'s advantage. The author investigates the following topics: the relationship of socialist orientation to socialism; shortcomings of the vanguard parties; correct foreign and domestic economic policies; the suitability of the Marxist model for Eastern societies; and the evolution of the non-aligned movement. The congruence between these academic discussions and fresh official formulations could give Western analysts and policy makers valuable insights into new Soviet proposals for reducing East-West tensions over events in the third world.

  • The Rise and Decline of Official Marxist Historiography in Poland, 1945–1983

  • Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier
  • Journal:
    Slavic Review / Volume 44 / Issue 4 / Winter 1985
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    27 January 2017, pp. 663-680
    Print publication:
    Winter 1985

  • In Poland the writing and teaching of history is not merely an academic discipline. In times of adversity history has served as an affirmation of national values. It is therefore not at all surprising that in the fall of 1980, when the movement for free association swept the country from Gdańsk, the liberation of history and historians from political constraints became an integral part of the efforts for renovation. For some thirty-five years the recasting and rewriting of Polish history had been central to the process of imposing and legitimizing Communist rule. Reform of the system in 1980 required, among other things, a coming to grips with the mendacious political mythology the system had spawned in striving to create the appropriate historical antecedents for a People's Poland.

    The story of Polish historiography since 1945 demonstrates the tenacity of cultural patterns and habits of mind that have made it impossible to impose an interpretation alien to the national sense of identity and a methodology at odds with the canons of objective scholarship. And the regime failed to reshape the traditional interpretations despite the seemingly overwhelming advantages it enjoyed in terms of power, institutions, and funds.

Page 1 of 2