ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power in 1985 marked the beginning of the final chapter in the history of the USSR. Though the process by which a new political, economic and social order is being shaped out of the ruins of that country is still continuing, all agree that the USSR, with its governmental and socio-political structure, is a thing of the past. The dismantling of the USSR at the end of 1991 can, therefore, be regarded as representing the end of Soviet Jewry.
