History of the Soviet Regime (1945--1991)

Author: (Russian) R. G. Pykhoyev, translated by Xu Jindong and others
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: The mechanism of a regime's existence typically requires close coordination among numerous administrative departments (ministries, the Council of Ministers and its subordinate departments, Central Committee bodies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Secretariat, and the Politburo). However, once the need for rapid decisions arises, or when these decisions hold high political value, the seemingly flawless consultation systems and pre-established expert review procedures are abandoned. Instead, decisions are hastily made by high-ranking political leaders (usually comprising party leaders, heads of the Council of Ministers, the Committee for State Security, and the military), based on what they deem politically reasonable (to be precise, based on the political rationality of a given moment). Many leaders often resolutely reject expert opinions and defy previously passed resolutions. The highly centralized power and pursuit of self-aggrandizement characteristic of the Soviet regime's organization led to well-known management issues: the "information flow" from below could not be used for decision-making. The task of this book is to examine who made what decisions during the post-war history of the country, how these decisions were formed, how the state regime exercised power in its various manifestations, and why the system, which was considered effective and possessed vast resources, ceased to exist. The subject of this book is the post-war history of the Soviet regime (1945–1991). The main objective is to study who made what decisions during the post-war history of the country, how these decisions were formed, how the state regime exercised power in its various manifestations, and so on.