Collective Leadership in Soviet Politics

This book studies the way in which the top leadership in the Soviet Union changed over time from 1917 until the collapse of the country in 1991. Its principal focus is the tension between individual leadership and collective rule, and it charts how this played out over the life of the regime. The strategies used by the most prominent leader in each period - Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev - to acquire and retain power are counterposed to the strategies used by the other oligarchs to protect themselves and sustain their positions. This is analyzed against the backdrop of the emergence of norms designed to structure oligarch politics. The book will appeal to students and scholars interested in the fields of political leadership, Soviet politics and Soviet history. 

List of contents

Chapter One. Introduction. The Study of Soviet Leadership.- Chapter Two. Oligarchy with a Predominant Leader, 1917-22.- Chapter Three. Rule by Pure Oligarchy, 1923-29.- Chapter Four. From the Predominant to the Dominant Leader, 1930-53.- Chapter Five. The Limits of the Predominant Leader, 1953-64.- Chapter Six. Predominant Leader within the Collective, 1964-82.- Chapter Seven. Collectivism Collapses, 1982-91.- Conclusion.

About the author

Graeme Gill is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, Australia. The author or editor of more than twenty books, as well as Soviet and Russian politics and history, he has published on the role of class in political development, the state and democratization.
 

Summary

This book studies the way in which the top leadership in the Soviet Union changed over time from 1917 until the collapse of the country in 1991. Its principal focus is the tension between individual leadership and collective rule, and it charts how this played out over the life of the regime. The strategies used by the most prominent leader in each period – Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev – to acquire and retain power are counterposed to the strategies used by the other oligarchs to protect themselves and sustain their positions. This is analyzed against the backdrop of the emergence of norms designed to structure oligarch politics. The book will appeal to students and scholars interested in the fields of political leadership, Soviet politics and Soviet history. 

Product details

• Authors: Graeme Gill
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9783319769615
• ISBN: 978-3-31-976961-5
• No. of pages: 351
• Dimensions: 151 mm x 31 mm x 216 mm
• Weight: 608 g
• Illustrations: X, 351 p.
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership; Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political system; Europa, B, History: specific events & topics, Politik und Staat, Russia, Geschichte: Ereignisse und Themen, European Politics, Political Science, Politics & government, Political science & theory, Political History, Political Science and International Studies, World Politics, Political Leadership, Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, Russia—Politics and government, authoritarian regimes, Politikwissenschaft und politische Theorie, individual leadership, forms of government, forms of political leadership, collective rule, Soviet history