Nomenklatura: The Soviet Ruling Class

By Michael Voslensky, M. S Voslenski, Michael Voslensky

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385176570
• ISBN13: 9780385176576
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 455 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A parasitic class

This book is a superb analysis of the political power structure in the USSR before the fall of the Berlin Wall. At least part of this analysis seems to reflect the actual situation in the new Russia of the oligarchs. The USSR was `managed' and controlled by an upper class of privileged people within the Communist Party, named the Nomenklatura (a list of people destined to take the most important posts in the bureaucracy). For the author, this was the most natural outcome of a One-Party-State. The old revolutionaries became confronted with and were outmaneuvered by younger careerists. The ambitions of the young were cleverly and cynically exploited by Stalin after the murder of the Leningrad Party chief Kirov. Stalin could in this way eliminate his most dangerous opponents and take absolute dictatorial power. The reign of the Nomenklatura was characterized by social and economic stagnation (living standards and life expectation), a Kafkaesque ideology without any real link with reality, an omnipresent police corps and limited freedom of speech, travel and news gathering. The author explains clearly that those in power in the USSR wanted in no way an auto-destructive nuclear confrontation with another country. There is however one fundamental difference between the actual regime and the former one. The oligarchs are exploiting the immensely rich mineral ore and energy resources of Russia, which catapulted that country into one of the key players in actual world economic development. Its international monetary reserves are at an all time high. M. Voslensky wrote a very lucid and combative book about a State in the iron grip of one political party. A must read for all those interested in Russian and world history.