In this book Boris Kagarlitsky offers a trenchant analysis of the
break-up of the Soviet Union and the transformation of a section of the
old nomenklatura into a new possessing and ruling elite.
Kagarlitsky shows that Western commentators have been misled by the
street theatre of events like the bungled coup of August 1991 into
supposing that a fundamental break has been made with the confused
politics and economics of the late Soviet period. He analyses the
ill-considered and self-interested attempts made by the nomenklatura to
privatize assets and inaugurate a free-market economy, finding an
essential continuity between the plans of Gorbachev's and Yeltsin's
advisers. He reveals, too, how the new Russian President has displayed a
greater capacity to assert dictatorial powers than did the last General
Secretary, a tendency which has brought him into repeated conflict with
elected bodies.
Boris Kagarlitsky is himself a Socialist member of the Moscow Soviet and
one of the founders of Russia's new Party of Labour. The Disintegration
of the Monolith furnishes both a memorable indictment of the greed and
irresponsibility of Russia's new/old rulers and a fascinating account of
the slow but unmistakeable awakening of forces of resistance as the
peoples of Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union
confront the hyper-inflation, shortages, unemployment and general havoc
wreaked by the free-market experiment. Kagarlitsky describes the gradual
emergence of a new Russian trade unionism, but warns that popular
discontent is also being exploited by nationalist demagogues, such as
the leader of Russia's new Liberal Party. For those seeking to
understand what has changed in Russia--and what has remained the
same--The Disintegration of the Monolith is required reading.
