ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of whether the small towns have a civil society. Chapter 6 suggested that professional people in the small towns had traditionally, from the nineteenth century, felt a responsibility for organizing and improving local community life. They were certainly expected to do so by the Soviet regime, which relied on such people to socialize the remainder of the population into regime-approved values. As has been shown, a number of the 1980s communist elite are still in responsible positions in the small towns and have not changed their views about their responsibilities. Nor have many regular teachers, arts workers, librarians and doctors.
