Revolutionary Passage

Reconstructs the processes leading from Gorbachev's perestroika's reforms, to the rise of Putin's "soft authoritarianism," in ways that shed new light on processes of revolutionary change in recent Russian history

Presents the cultural, social, and political history of Russia, during fifteen crucial years. This book traces this history from perestroika to the rise of Vladimir Putin, and argues that the pressures put on the soviet system by Gorbachev's reforms gave birth to movements for democratic reform. It also examines the DemRossiia movement.Revolutionary Passage is a cultural, social, and political history of Russia during its critical period of transformation at the end of the twentieth century. Marc Garcelon traces the history of perestroika and the rise of Vladimir Putin, arguing that the pressure Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms put on the Soviet system gave birth to movements for democratic change. He also shows that the very political arrangements that prompted the fall of Communism also killed hopes for subsequent reform. At the turning point of this political revolution stood Democratic Russia, or DemRossiia, the principal organization of the Russian democratic movement that helped to dismantle the Soviet system and force the Soviet leadership to change course. However, as post-Soviet Russia committed itself to globalization and U.S.-style economic reforms, the country directed itself away from the Democratic reforms called for by organizations like DemRossiia, and such groups collapsed. Revolutionary Passage provides a close examination of the DemRossiia. Garcelon deftly illuminates the rise and decline of this organization, and how the processes of revolutionary change impacted both Russia and the world.