The Problems of Perestroika: The KGB and Mikhail Gorbachev's Reforms

dc.contributor.author

Miles, S

dc.date.accessioned

2022-05-01T13:10:27Z

dc.date.available

2022-05-01T13:10:27Z

dc.date.issued

2021-01-01

dc.date.updated

2022-05-01T13:10:26Z

dc.description.abstract

The KGB and the rest of the Soviet intelligence and policing apparatus are commonly portrayed as having been among the staunchest of conservative opponents to the reform process in the Soviet Union during the latter half of the 1980s. But while key leaders of the August 1991 effort to oust General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, for example, did come from the security services, this characterization obscures how the KGB rank-And-file responded to and participated in the reforms. This article uses their own words and experiences, recorded in the KGBs top-secret in-house journal, Sbornik KGB SSSR, to examine how everyday KGB officers navigated liberalizing reforms in which they in fact played an active and evolving role implementing and shaping. In these firsthand accounts, which cover topics from nationalism to environmentalism, a sense of loss of control is clear, both over events unfolding in the Soviet Union and over their own leading role and privileged position within it.

dc.identifier.issn

0037-6779

dc.identifier.issn

2325-7784

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24948

dc.language

en

dc.publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

dc.relation.ispartof

Slavic Review

dc.relation.isversionof

10.1017/slr.2022.4

dc.subject

KGB

dc.subject

Soviet Union

dc.subject

Mikhail S

dc.subject

Gorbachev

dc.subject

perestroika

dc.subject

glasnost

dc.title

The Problems of Perestroika: The KGB and Mikhail Gorbachev's Reforms

dc.type

Journal article

pubs.begin-page

816

pubs.end-page

838

pubs.issue

4

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

pubs.organisational-group

Sanford School of Public Policy

pubs.organisational-group

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

pubs.organisational-group

History

pubs.organisational-group

Slavic and Eurasian Studies

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

80

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