ABSTRACT
Ironically, the first collection of essays explaining, advocating, and demonstrating the application of Western social science concepts, theory, and methodology to Soviet politics and international behavior appeared in the West the same year. Hoping to shed light on the central issues and armed with some innovative approaches and techniques from the behavioral sciences, a new generation of Sovietologists entered academe and government service in the late 1960s. But these scholars never really produced a “behavioral revolution in communist studies. Young Sovietologists were much more convinced than their elders of the increasing liabilities of totalitarian approaches. Sovietologists are consciously and subconsciously applying the methodologies and theories of the past to the dynamically changing conditions of the present. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
