This book analyzes the efforts by Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), to transform the relationship between the bureaucratic core of full-time party officials (the 'inner party') and the Communists who manned the Soviet state (the 'outer party'). Jonathan Harris argues that the efforts of party officials, headed by the secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee, to direct members of the 'outer party' were the essence of so-called party leadership of the entire political system, and that Gorbachev's reforms destroyed the basis of this leadership. Finally, Subverting the System shows how orthodox party officials not only directly challenged Gorbachev's definitions but worked vigorously to restore their own authority during the last years of Gorbachev's reign; opposition contributed significantly to the attempted coup against him in 1991.
- ISBN10 074252678X
- ISBN13 9780742526785
- Publish Date 1 December 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 21 February 2013
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 190
- Language English