A by-product of the amazing changes now taking place within the Soviet Union is a change in rhetoric no less than reality. Under Gorbachev, the Russian language has been changing parallel with novoe politichaskoe myshenie - new political thinking - with the effect that such new expressions as have flooded the Russian language clash with the less yielding realities of Soviet economy and society.

The purpose of this volume is to clarify this dynamic in Soviet life, in which stagnation and decay confront hopes and expectations for liberalization. Zemtsov argues that the Soviet...

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko. a fig-ure wtm appeared to the outside worid as a commonplace Russian bureaucrat cut from the mold of a Gogol short story, was elevated in 1984 to the post of general sec-retary of the Communist party of the So-viet Union. Thus, a post held by such awesome, fearsome figures as Lenin and Stalin passed into the hands of someone perceived as a nondescript bureaucrat, de-void of ideas or initiative, and crippled by old age and infirmity.

A singular merit of this work is that it shows how far from the mark were these perceptions. This is the...

Gorbachev: The Man and the System portrays Gorbachev's rise to power and his tenure in office against the background of a period of critical change and development in the Soviet system. The research is primarily based on Soviet materials, supplemented and critically compared with a wide range of Western press and academic studies. Both Zemtsov and Farrar bring to the analysis their own experiences, acquired under different circumstances.

Part I focuses on a selected chronology of significant events from Gorbachev's assumption of power in March 1985 to June 1987. The authors...