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Article: Sovietology: notes for a post-morterm.
- Article from:
- The National Interest
- Article date:
- March 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 The National Interest, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AFTER MIKHAIL Gorbachev's ascension to power, considerable effort went into predicting the Soviet future. This concern spread from the op-ed pages and congressional hearings to infect the furthest corners of the discipline of Sovietology. Pundits, politicians, and undergraduates who could not locate the Volga river on a map would happily write essays or deliver speeches about Gorbachev's real intentions. Professional conferences were increasingly devoted to round table discussions of Gorbachev's next move, rather than to the presentation of research findings.(1)
Despite all this effort, most commentators got it totally wrong. Social scientists in general, of ...