ABSTRACT
The rival forces of "innovation and tradition," to use the language of the official press, have become "two poles" in Soviet politics and society, which are expressed through "sharp clashes between people standing on both sides of the psychological barrier." This chapter argues that the fundamental division between these "two poles" in Soviet life is best understood as a social and political confrontation between reformism and conservatism in the sense that the terms convey in other countries. Even a spectrum of political outlook inside the Soviet Communist Party, for example, would require at least four categories: authentic democrats, reformers, conservatives, and neo-Stalinist reactionaries. But while full-fledged democrats and neo-Stalinists may respectively share many reformist and conservative attitudes, the policies of either would mean radicalism in the Soviet context, not reform or conservatism. Reformism and conservatism, therefore, are concepts that require no special definition in the Soviet context.
