The Soviet Model of Modernity and Russia’s Post-communist Political Transformation

• Authors: Maslovskii Mikhail

Title variants

CS

Sovětský vzorec modernity a postkomunistická politická transformace Ruska

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article discusses political processes in post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of the multiple modernities theory. A study of Russia’s political transformation on the basis of this approach allows us to reconsider the obstacles to democratization that existed in the 1990s and the socio-cultural preconditions for de-democratization in the 2000s. The author draws on Johann Arnason’s analysis of the Soviet model of modernity. From this perspective the Soviet model possessed only some civilizational traits and did not lead to a sustainable civilizational pattern. Nevertheless, remnants of that model and the imperial legacy of the Soviet period influenced Russian politics of the last two decades. The dynamics of democratization and de-democratization in Russia represent a case of path dependency which is both post-communist and post-imperial.

Keywords

EN

civilizational analysis; modernity; Soviet model; Russia; political transformation

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY
• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, Czech Republic
• Journal: Historická sociologie (Historical Sociology)
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 45-60

Dates

published

2015-12

Contributors

author

Maslovskii Mikhail

• Sociological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 7th Krasnoarmeyskaya 25/14 St.-Petersburg & National Research University Higher School of Economics, Myasnitskaya st. 20, Moscow.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14712/23363525.2015.11