Shadrin, A.Y. Crisis of the mobilization development model and breakup of the Soviet Union (1945-1991)

Abstract: The control system and ideologies are the two key levers for administration of the society in the conditions of mobilization type of development. The efficiency peak of this model took place during the post-war period. However, the overly hard pressures required support of coercion and convincing of the people by the personal interests, and economy and social administration should be reorganized by taking some functions away from the party apparatus to the specialists in economics. Therefore, the Soviet elite were functionally differentiated, and the groups holding special interests appeared. After the death of I.V. Stalin the key issue was which of these group shall lead the state. The Council of Ministers lost the grip, and its position was overtaken by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the republican bodies, which led to the formation of another influential interest group – national “elite”. At the same time ideology became more chaotic. At the XX Party Congress the entire existing state strategy was challenged, and the new utopian communism constructions were included into the party program. The strife among the “elites” brought new political administration methods, which were based on informal ties and relations. Each new Soviet leader was to a greater degree dependent on the relations among the clans. The same was true for M.S. Gorbachev. Group interests found connections outside bureaucracy sphere and ended up in direct contacts with the criminal spheres. The government lost legitimacy and the hopes of people at the start of Perestroika were thwarted and lead to the great deep disdain towards Gorbachev himself and everything that he personified, including the Socialist state order and the Union state.

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