The accidental proletariat : workers, politics, and crisis in Gorbachev's Russia

General Information

Author/Creator
Connor, Walter, 1942-
Language
English.
Published
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1991.
Physical Description
xv, 374 p. ; 25 cm.

Contents/Summary

Summary
Walter Connor shows how the seven decades since Stalin launched the First Five Year plan have changed Soviet workers from a disorganized mass of unskilled ex-peasants into something very much like a class--not the working class intended by Lenin and Stalin but a new and powerful "accidental proletariat," produced by forces partly beyond the state's control. Does this new "proletariat" threaten glasnost and perestroika? To address that question, Connor examines the growth of the new "class" and its role in the crisis-ridden politics of Gorbachev's USSR. In this book, as in his earlier works, Connor focuses on the interplay of social and political forces. Do workers support economic reform, he asks, or oppose it? Are they beneficiaries or victims of Gorbachev's policies? Can a Soviet state already under severe ethnic and economic strains accommodate an emergent working-class politics? Connor probes these issues in a work that is essential reading for students of Russian politics, government officials faced with the uncertainties of a new Russia, and people seeking to do business in any economy previously isolated behind geographical, military, and institutional barriers.

Subjects

Subject
Labor > Soviet Union.
Working class > Soviet Union.
Working class > Political activity > Soviet Union.

Bibliographic Information

Responsibility
Walter D. Connor.
Library Special Collection
HU OSA 300 - RFE/RL collection
ISBN
0691077878

Holdings

Item Type Current Location Collection Call Number Volume Info Shelving Location Public Note
BookOSA Archivum LibraryGeneral collection322/.2/0947 CONOSA Repository-

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