Demokratizatsiya and the Voluntary Sector

Abstract

The book examines the evolution of Russian society and its relationship with the party-state during the period 1985–91. During these years, when Mikhail Gorbachev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Central Committee, both society and the party changed profoundly. The causes and nature of the transformation are still imperfectly understood and this book attempts to fill in part of the jigsaw. It provides a case study which is intended to aid understanding of the wider process of demokratizatsiya: democratization as it occurred in Russia during this period. Gorbachev’s democratizationprogramme included the introduction of multi-candidate elections both for the soviets and within the party, but also a much wider process of removing prohibitions on freeassociation and encouraging social initiatives. This book analyses the emergence of social initiatives, initiatives which could be described as ‘building civil society’. ‘Civil society’ is understood to mean the area of public activity, normally non-economic in character, involving the creation and functioning of independent, non-governmental organizations and movements, which by their being and actions contributed to the curbing of the party-state and the evolution of democratic values and procedures.¹