ABSTRACT
Those who subscribed to the totalitarian school of thought among post-World War II Sovietologists accepted the general conclusion that such a political culture was antithetical to a genuine, voluntary civil society. I According to this mode of analysis, a government with absolute power could tolerate or condone only the outward features of a civil order.2 As long, therefore, as all power flowed in one direction, from the top down, an independent civil life was impossible. So went the theoretical reasoning of such prominent scholars as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Conquest, C.J. Friedrich, and Adam Ulam. The theme was restated in Martin Malia's most recent review ofSoviet history.3
