Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book illuminates selected aspects of the evolution of Soviet politics and society and some areas of interaction between the Soviet Union and the West, particularly the United States. It constitutes an agenda for the Soviet political system, whatever the precise composition of the leadership groups at various levels of the party and state in the 1980s. The book serves to shed light on significant aspects of Soviet reality and interaction with the outside world. It also display the scope and depth of Western inquiry and analysis in these areas. The book documents the determination and ability to penetrate the obscurities and barriers to inquiry which Western scholarship confronts.