Political Mythology of the "Perestroika" Era

- Шайгородський, Ю.Ж. (orcid.org/0000-0003-3281-6138) (2007) Political Mythology of the "Perestroika" Era Сучасна українська політика. Політики і політологи про неї (9). pp. 140-148. ISSN 1810-5270

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Abstract

The scientific article provides a comprehensive analysis of the destruction of old Soviet political myths and the construction of new ideological models in the second half of the 1980s. The prerequisites and features of Perestroika myth-making are investigated, occurring against the background of an emotional perception of reality, large-scale shifts in public consciousness ("a leap in political thinking"), and a naive faith in the immediate onset of qualitative changes after abandoning the core ideologemes of the past. The author examines in detail the evolution of the revision of Marxism-Leninism, which progressed in phases through the processes of Destalinization, Deleninization, and Demarxism. Particular attention in the paper is paid to the deconstruction of the first phase of this process—the myth of "democratic socialism" and the attempts to overcome the "ghost of Stalinism". Based on the analysis of seminal publications by Perestroika ideologues, specifically A. Tsipko ("The Origins of Stalinism") and I. Klyamkin ("Why It Is Hard to Speak the Truth"), the contradictions and logical inconsistency of the Soviet intelligentsia's mindset are highlighted. Despite attempts to go beyond purely moralistic and psychological critiques of J. Stalin's personality and to derive Stalinism from the conceptual foundations of Marxist theory, the publicists of that era reverted to the apology of V. Lenin, justifying socialism through the idea of a "cooperative system" and searching for humanistic origins in early K. Marx. It is proved that the pathos of the literature of that period was aimed at saving the idea of "socialism with a human face," while the real social consequences and challenges of the destruction of Soviet infrastructure remained overlooked by researchers.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	political mythology, Perestroika, Destalinization, Demarxism, socialism with a human face, political thinking, utopian consciousness, Soviet discourse, destruction of myths, intelligentsia project
Subjects:	Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 3 Social Sciences > 304 Social questions. Social practice. Cultural practice. Way of life (Lebensweise) Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 3 Social Sciences > 32 Politics Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 3 Social Sciences > 36 Safeguarding the mental and material necessities of life Science and knowledge. Organization. Computer science. Information. Documentation. Librarianship. Institutions. Publications > 9 Geography. Biography. History > 93/94 History
Divisions:	Generally and academic resources
Depositing User:	Ю.Ж. Шайгородський
Date Deposited:	13 Aug 2026 10:22
Last Modified:	13 Aug 2026 10:22
URI:	https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/id/eprint/750104

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