ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between sociology and Perestroika in the context of the struggle to establish the integrity of sociology as a discipline in the Soviet Union. Sociology in the Soviet Union endeavoured to reinstate itself as a legitimate discipline after the nadir of the Stalin era. As Alec Nove suggests, social scientists, were already working as 'constructive dissidents that is those who prematurely advocated perestroika'. Zaslavskaya was by no means alone either in her criticism of the state of sociology or in offering suggestions for its future development in the age of perestroika. Although the Soviet Sociological Association was formed in 1958, it was not until the Twenty-Third Party Congress in March-April 1966 that sociology was recognized officially as a discrete discipline with distinct functions. Zaslavskaya's very courageous and undoubtedly path-breaking memorandum stated flatly that the Soviet economic system was obsolete and Soviet bureaucracy was a very real impediment to much needed change.
