Soviet Society — People’s Power?

Abstract

Perestroika is often compared to NEP. The New Economic Policy, initiated by Lenin, suggested to Soviet society at the time, a partial return to a system of motivation and stimulation, with which it was well familiar, which it had practiced in the past, in which it was educated and lived for generations. There was no need for a psychological transformation. The policy of perestroika, however, implied the creation of a new type of social behaviour which in many ways conflicted with the life experience and motivation of the last two to three generations (Kon, 1988, p. 64). The question discussed among Soviet social scientists is whether Soviet society is capable of transforming itself into a civil society, into a western type society, and how long the process of transformation would take.