¹ Gorbachev, Mikhail, ‘The Political Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the XVII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, Pravda (Moscow), 26 02 1986, 2–10. p. 9.Google Scholar

² See, for example, the debates that took place on the subject of Soviet ideology in the pages of Soviet Studies and Slavic Review between 1965 and 1967.

³ Hamilton, M. B., ‘The Elements of the Concept of Ideology’, Political Sludies, 35 (1987), 18–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sumner, Colin, Reading Ideologies: An Investigation into the Marxist Theory of Ideology and Law (London: Academic Press, 1979). pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

⁴ Dawisha, Karen H., ‘The Roles of Ideology in the Decision-making of the Soviet Union’, Inter national Relations, 4 (1972), 156–75, p. 158CrossRefGoogle Scholar, emphasis given. Other representative examples of this type of approach include: Taras, Ray, Ideology in a Socialist State 1956–1983 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bell, Daniel, ‘Ideology and Soviet Politics’, Slavic Review, 24 (1965), 591–603. p. 595CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zaslavsky, Victor, ‘Socioeconomic Inequality and Changes in Soviet Ideology’, Theory and Society. 9 (1980), 383–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lane, Christel, The Rites of Rulers: Ritual in Industrial Society – the Soviet Case (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).Google Scholar See Walker, Rachel, ‘Soviet Marxism-Leninism and the Question of Ideology: A Critical Analysis’ (doctoral dissertation, Essex University. 1987)Google Scholar, for an extended critique of Western approaches.

⁵ A classic example is provided by Joravsky, David, ‘Soviet Ideology’, Soviet Studies, 18 (1966), 2–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ See, for example, Clarkson, Stephen, The Soviet Theory of Development: India and the Third World in Marxist-Leninist Scholarship (London: Macmillan, 1979)Google Scholar; Mitchell, R. Judson, Ideology of a Superpower: Contemporary Soviet Doctrine on International Relations (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1982)Google Scholar; Adomeit, Hannes, ‘Soviet Perceptions of Western Europe Integration: Ideological Distortion or Realistic Assessment?’, Journal of International Studies, 8 (1979), 1–24.Google Scholar

⁷ Just because the CPSU uses the terms ‘ideology’ and ‘Marxism-Leninism’ does not mean, of course, that Western analysts have to.

⁸ The Soviet word for stagnation, which they now consistently use to describe the Brezhnev period.

⁹ Urban, Michael E., ‘The Structure of Signification in the General Secretary's Address: A Semiotic Approach to Soviet Political Discourse’, Coexistence, 24 (1987), 187–210, p. 188.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Urban, , ‘The Structure of Signification in the General Secretary's Address’, pp. 188–9.Google Scholar

¹¹ My thanks to Russell Faeges for making the comparison.

¹² Khrushchev, Nikita, ‘Summary Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the XX Congress of the Party’, Stenograficheskii Otchet, I (Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1956), pp. 9–120, at pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

¹³ Khrushchev, Nikita, ‘Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the XXII Congress of the CPSU’, Materialy XXII C'ezda KPSS (Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1961), pp. 3–120, at p. 114.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Gorbachev, , ‘Political Report to the XXVII Congress’, p. 9, emphasis added.Google Scholar

¹⁵ The following is the relevant passage from the 26th Congress text: ‘Comrades! The Marxist- Leninist party cannot fulfil its role if it does not give the necessary attention to the comprehension of everything that occurs, to the generalization of new phenomena of life, to the creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory. We have always considered this task to be extremely important, and have paid a great deal of attention to its resolution in the period under review.

After the 25th Congress the theoretical arsenal of the party was enriched by a series of important generalizations…' (Brezhnev, Leonid, ‘Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, Stenograficheskii Otchet, I (Moscow: Political Literature Publishing House, 1981), pp. 20–99, at p. 96).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXV Congress’, p. 70.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See, for example, Meyer, Alfred, ‘The Functions of Ideology in the Soviet Political System: A Speculative Essay Designed to Provoke Discussion’, Soviet Studies, 17 (1966), 273–85, p. 274CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zaslavsky, , ‘Socioeconomic Inequality’, p. 395.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Gorbachev, , ‘Political Report’, p. 2Google Scholar, emphasis added, original emphasis effaced.

¹⁹ Khrushchev, , ‘Report to the XXII Congress’, pp. 114–15, emphasis added.Google Scholar

²⁰ Adomeit, , ‘Soviet Perceptions’, pp. 20–1Google Scholar; Zaslavsky, , ‘Socioeconomic Inequality’.Google Scholar

²¹ Randy Banks, Essex University, private communication.

²² Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXV Congress’, p. 72.Google Scholar

²³ Khrushchev, Nikita, ‘Concerning the Control Figures for the Development of the National Economy of the USSR for the years 1959–1965: Report’, Stenograficheskii Otchet, I (Moscow: State Publishing House for Political Literature, 1959), pp. 12–120, at p. 61, emphasis added.Google Scholar

²⁴ Gorbachev, , ‘Political Report’, p. 9.Google Scholar

²⁵ Khrushchev, : ‘Report to XX Congress’, p. 113–14Google Scholar; ‘Concerning the Control Figures’, p. 110Google Scholar; ‘Report to XXII Congress’, p. 115Google Scholar; Brezhnev, : ‘Report to XXIII Congress’, p. 86Google Scholar; ‘Report to XXIV Congress’, p. 101Google Scholar; ‘Report to XXV Congress’, p. 72Google Scholar; also Gorbachev, , ‘Political Report’, p. 2.Google Scholar

²⁶ See, for example, Brezhnev's assertion at the beginning of the 25th Congress text: ‘Today's accomplishments of the Soviet people are a direct continuation of the cause of October. They are the practical embodiment of the great Lenin's ideas. Our party is and always will be faithful to this cause, to these ideas!’ (Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXV Congress’, p. 5).Google Scholar

²⁷ My thanks to Mary Buckley who chided me for forgetting to mention the Albanians in an earlier draft.

²⁸ Brezhnev, Leonid, ‘Summary Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the XXIV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, Materialy XXIV C'ezda KPSS (Moscow: Political Literature Publishing House, 1971), pp. 3–106, at p. 103.Google Scholar

²⁹ Khrushchev, , ‘Report to the XXII Congress’, p. 115.Google Scholar

³⁰ Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXV Congress’, p. 11.Google Scholar

³¹ Urban, Michael E., ‘Conceptualizing Political Power in the USSR: Patterns of Binding and Bonding’, Studies in Comparative Communism, 18 (1985), 207–26, pp. 216ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³² Urban, , ‘Conceptualizing Political Power’, pp. 216ff.Google Scholar

³³ Brezhnev, Leonid, ‘Summary Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the XXIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’, Materialy XXIII C'ezda KPSS (Moscow: Political Literature Publishing House, 1966), pp. 3–94, at p. 17.Google Scholar

³⁴ Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXIII Congress’, p. 17.Google Scholar

³⁵ Brezhnev, , ‘Report to the XXIII Congress’, pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

³⁶ The exception was Poland in 1956. But even here Gomulka had to persuade the Soviet Union that his brand of creativity was safe and the same of course applies to Janos Kádár in Hungary after 1956.

³⁷ Scanlan, James P., Marxism in the USSR: A Critical Survey of Current Soviet Thought (London: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 99.Google Scholar Although for the term ‘ideology’ I would substitute the phrase ‘political necessity’.

³⁸ In interview with Charles Wheeler on Newsnight, BBC 2, 7 07 1988.Google Scholar

³⁹ However, this is changing. See, for example, the work by Seriot, Patrick, Analyse du discours politique sovietique (Paris: Institut d'Etudes Slaves, 1985)Google Scholar; Bourmeyster, Alexander in Essais sur le discours sovietique, 2, 3 (1982, 1983)Google Scholar; Urban, Michael and McClure, J., ‘The Folklore of State Socialism; Semiotics and the Study of the Soviet State’, Soviet Studies, 35 (1983), 471–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Urban, , ‘The Structure of Signification in the General Secretary's Address’Google Scholar; Urban, Michael E., ‘From Chernenko to Gorbachev: A Repoliticization of Official Soviet Discourse?’, Soviet Union (forthcoming).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ As Barghoorn and Remington remark on the general problem of interpreting official Soviet sources, ‘Of course, one must weed out the elements of propaganda, distortion, outright falsification, doubletalk, fantasy, and ritual contained in the official Soviet media’ (Politics in the USSR, 3rd edn (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1986), p. 34).Google Scholar