1988 Reports

The Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’ and Russian Self-awareness

Keenan, Edward L.

It is not premature to observe that, whatever perestroika means in the sphere of economic and institutional reform, or glasnost’ as concerns the etiquette of authorized utterance, a cultural revolution is taking place in certain spheres of Soviet Russian life. A limited circle of the cultural elite created by the Revolution and Stalinist reconstruction — a group marked by hereditary privilege, “Western” sophistication, exclusion from the Party political process, and social guilt! — has formed an unexpected and fragile alliance, with an equally small cohort of impatient practical Party politicians borne of the Khrushchev years, in an effort to dramatically transform Soviet life. They may succeed. Even if their revolution fails, there are some things that will, in our time, never be the same.