Perestroika is commonly associated with the introduction of a new economic mechanism and the elimination of impediments to economic growth. At the same time emphasis is placed on the importance of “a strong social policy” and the revolutionary role of new thinking. In the process of perestroika we will have to reestablish —on a new foundation!—the economics-politics-culture triad, in which culture is both a highly important condition for the social reforms being carried out in this country and a guarantee of their quality.

This collection will give the foreign reader a chance to see for himself what serious changes are occurring in the social awareness of Soviet men and women due to perestroika . How are these changes revealed?

The battles of ideas being contested by economists, writers, philosophers, journalists, and ordinary readers responding to the ongoing debate in the newspapers and magazines stem not just from differing interests and perceptions of perestroika, but from discrepancies in the shaping of new thinking itself. Clearly, though, there is a trend towards liberation from dogmatism, bureaucratism, lies and half-truths. People are thinking and eagerly seeking the truth. The articles in this collection bear witness to that.

Translated from the Russian
Designed by Vladimir Gordon
Compiled by Galina Dzyubenko

You can get the book here and here.

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Contents

Valentin Tolstykh. In Place of a Foreword. Translated by Sharon Mckee 7
Look for Truth
We Need a New Vision of the World. An Interview with Chinghiz Aitmatov. Translated by Sharon Mckee 15
Look for Truth. An Interview with Alexander Alexandrov. Translated by Sharon Mckee 24
From a Position of Truth and Realism. An Interview with Yuri Afanasyev. Translated by Sharon Mckee 32
Nina Andreyeva. I Cannot Betray My Principles. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 44
The Principles of Perestroika: Revolutionary Thinking and Action. Pravda Editorial. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 57
Alexander Gelman. A Time to Gather Strength. Translated by Sharon Mckee 72
Vladimir Svirsky. History Is Silent. Translated by Sharon Mckee 81
Anatoly Golovkov and Alexei Pavlov. What All This Noise? Translated by Sharon Mckee 87
Yuri Karyakin. “Zhdanov Liquid” or Against Defamation. Translated by Paula Garb 96

Echoes Near and Far
Igor Dedkov. Literature and the New Way of Thinking. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 115
Echoes Near and Far. An Interview with Daniil Granin. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 136
Bulat Okudzhava. I Have Regained Hope. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 151
Readers’ Letters on Anatoly Rybakov’s Children of the Arbat. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 157
Olga Kuchkina. The Water of Life. Translated by Sharon Mckee 164
Olga Kuchkina. The Fierce Word. Translated by Nadezhda Burova 166
Yuri Burtin. “To You, Not of My Generation…”. Translated by Alex Miller 169

So What Can We Do?
Kirill Lavrov. So What Can We Do? Translated by Nadezhda Burova 197
Eldar Ryazanov. Why Did I Leave Television in the Era of Glasnost? Translated by Sharon Mckee 205
Alexei Simonov. A Time to Confess, not Preach. Translated by Sharon Mckee 216
Olga Martynenko. Vladimir Spivakov: A Conversation in the First Person. Translated by Sharon Mckee 222
Andrei Sakharov. I Believe in Reason. Translated by Sharon Mckee 229

Memory
Boris Pilnyak. The Hinterland. Translated by Sharon Mckee 233
Letters by Mikhail Bulgakov. Translated by Sharon Mckee 253
Alexander Kamensky. Color, Purity and Love: An Interview with Marc Chagall. Translated by Sharon Mckee 278
Arkady Strugatsky. As I Knew Him. Translated by Sharon Mckee 287

Notes 293