Issue ? 53. November 2015

Metamorphosis of Informal Political Clubs of Moscow in the late 1980s - early 1990s. A Review of 'Political Clubs and Perestroika in Russia: Opposition Without Dissidence' by Carol Sigman

Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: plytony@yandex.ru

The article attempts to analyze the monumental monograph of а French researcher Carole Sigman that is dedicated to the study of the so-called “informal movement” in the USSR during perestroika. Against the background of numerous publications on that subject, Sigman’s book is different by using an integrated approach. The author uses methods of sociology, political science and history. This lets the author to represent the new features of the genesis of the political opposition in the USSR. Carole Sigman have succeeded in finding out two cohorts in the Russian democratic movement of the late 1980s. The first one, which had appeared in the beginning of Perestroika, put forward reasonable political demands to reform the soviet system. The leaders of the second cohort, which came into politics after the wide democratic elections of 1989–1990, were more radical, aimed at capturing political power. From that moment, an open conflict between the old communist elite and the new Russian political class had begun.

Keywords

Carole Sigman, Perestroika, opposition, political clubs, informal, political parties, Gorbachev, Yeltsin.