Controversies in Soviet social thought: democratization, social justice and the erosion of official ideology

Over the past several years observers have become aware of what might be called the 'expansionary logic' of the reform debate in the Soviet Union.

Punctuated by periods of reaction and retreat, successive phases of reform momentum have brought to the fore ideas and proposals that only months before had been considered too radically unorthodox for prudent discussion.

In this account, Murray Yanowitch traces the dynamic evolution of reform thinking and the emergence of liberal and social-democratic schools of thought on several pivotal issues.