Walter D. Connor

Soviet social problems

As a result of glasnost attention has recently been focused on social problems in the USSR. This book analyzes the broad range of social concerns now confronting Gorbachev, including drug and alcohol abuse, nuclear and environmental calamities, poverty, prostitution, health, education and family issues, crime and juvenile delinquency and the difficulty of adapting to technological change. The authors compare and contrast these social concerns with those of other industrial societies and offer a wide-ranging perspective on the internal problems facing the progressive Soviet leadership.

New World of Work: Employment, Unemployment, and Adaptation

When the time comes to write the first economic history of post-Soviet Russia, it is probable that, given sufficient perspective, the whole period from 1 January 1992 until the summer of 1998 will be treated as a single period—or at most two periods—wherein the working population of the Russian Federation, as earners, consumers, and providers for their dependents, underwent a harsh and wrenching, but not altogether negative, period of adjustment to new economic conditions. This transitional period, it will be argued, came to an end with the devaluation of the ruble, the effective default on most of its external debt, and the consequent collapse of Russia’s precarious position in the world economy. At home, the crash of the ruble and consequent rapid inflation experienced by a population more and more dependent on imports threatened the measure of comfort and security—thin as it was—that some Russians (not just the “new Russian” super-rich) had achieved, and heralded further distress for the larger numbers who had experienced mainly economic disadvantage since the end of 1991.

Soviet Society, Public Attitudes, and the Perils of Gorbachev's Reforms: The Social Context of the End of the USSR

Soviet society underwent profound changes during the seven-and-a-half decades of Soviet rule. By the late 1970s and 1980s, adverse economic and demographic trends had led to widespread public cynicism, especially among younger people. Mikhail Gorbachev was aware of the discontent within Soviet society when he came to office in 1985, and he pursued a reform program that was intended to remedy the countrys ills and rejuvenate the society. In the end he failed. Although Soviet society did not revolt en masse against Gorbachevs reforms and the hardships that ensued, the crucial thing by 1991 was that the society as a whole no longer had much of a stake in the survival of the USSRa stake that might have induced people to mobilize in favor of preserving a union.

Education and National Development in the European Socialist States: A Model for the Third World?

The problems created by rapid expansion of educational systems in the underdeveloped states of Asia, Africa and South America are the subject of a large and diverse literature.1 Familiar to even the most cursory student of this literature are several themes: (1) the ‘devaluation’ of elementary education, which no longer affords entry into white-collar positions as it did in the late colonial periods; (2) the persistent and diffuse ‘elite’ connotations of higher (and even secondary) education, the supply of which, while increasing, remains relatively short; (3) the skewed distribution, within higher education, toward ‘traditional’ disciplines—notably law and the humanities—reflecting the values of the colonial system and running against perceived needs for technological skills; and finally, the concern over the ‘destabilizing’ consequences of a growth in educational access and aspirations disproportionate to the economys ability to ‘fit’ much of tne-educated-manpower into the system.

Labor in the New Russia: Four Years On

Russian trade unions are too weak to dictate terms in a turbulent transition economy. Management increasingly has the upper hand in labor disputes.

Tattered Banners: Labor, Conflict, and Corporatism in Postcommunist Russia@@@Power Restructuring in China and Russia

* Slippery Surfaces: Conceptualizing Russias Political Transition * Searching for Consensus: Corporatisms Shakedown Cruise, 1992 * Disunited Front: Trade Union Politics and Conflict * Renewal or Exhaustion? Trilateralism and Conflict in 1993 * Institutions and Conflict in the Russian Transition * Epilogue: 1996

Observations on the Status of Russia's Workers

A noted American specialist on the social structures of Soviet-type and post-Soviet systems reviews the altered status of blue-collar workers in the economy of the Russian Federation. The paper covers changes in branch and socio-occupational differentials, the impact of the pay arrears problem, unemployment, and labor militancy. A central question is whether Russias workers have fared as poorly as have most other categories of the population, given inhibitions on large-scale release of redundant labor in uncompetitive industries. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: J21, J24, J31, O52. 1 table, 15 references.

The Workers' Movement in Russia

This major book surveys the development of the new workers’ movement in Russia under perestroika to understand how it connected with the workers at shop floor level and the national and local political authorities to whom it addressed its demands, and whose development it sought to influence.

Soviet Social Problems.

As a result of glasnost attention has recently been focused on social problems in the USSR. This book analyzes the broad range of social concerns now confronting Gorbachev, including drug and alcohol abuse, nuclear and environmental calamities, poverty, prostitution, health, education and family issues, crime and juvenile delinquency and the difficulty of adapting to technological change. The authors compare and contrast these social concerns with those of other industrial societies and offer a wide-ranging perspective on the internal problems facing the progressive Soviet leadership.

The Economic Challenge

Abstract The new Soviet leadership inherits from Brezhnev a daunting complex of unprecedented economic problems that, if left untackled, could lead the country toward economic disaster and provide an excuse for further adventures abroad.