State and Society: Toward the Emergence of Civil Society in the Soviet Union

A growing recognition by the Soviet leadership that successful management of national relations was critical to the stability of the system and demanded patient and delicate social engineering in turn generated increased encouragement and support for empirical social research on ethnic processes. This chapter examines three broad issues: the way in which broader changes in Soviet social structure and values made reform both urgent and possible; the new perspectives on Soviet society that inform the reformist program; and how societal reactions affect the prospects for a fundamental transformation of the Soviet system. Reform vitally changes the organizational relationships between the state apparatus and members of the society, collectively and individually, and this is what its main substance lies in. The shift from an emphasis on social homogeneity to a recognition of social diversity and potential for social conflict, and the emergence of increasingly active unofficial organizations in defense of group interests, is especially apparent in the area of nationality problems.