ABSTRACT
The rationale of the present study When Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in March 1985 and embarked upon the policy of perestroika (‘restructuring’), aimed at rejuvenating the Soviet system, few would have envisaged that the world’s second superpower would no longer exist less than seven years later. More than a decade on from the emergence of an independent Russia in late 1991, it is possible to look back at the turbulent transition process – encompassing massive political, economic and social upheaval – which ensued. Arguably this process of transformation continues at the beginning of the twenty-first century under Russia’s second post-Soviet leader, Vladimir Putin, but there are signs that the pace of change may be slowing. As the Russian Federation enters its second decade of independence, and Putin attempts to consolidate the political system, it is a timely moment to reflect on developments since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
