Encyclopedia of Soviet Life

A by-product of the amazing changes that took place in the last years of the Soviet Union was a change in rhetoric no less than reality. The Russian language has been changing parallel with novoe politichaskoe myshenie -- new political thinking -- with the effect that such new expressions as have flooded the Russian language clash with the less yielding realities of Soviet economy and society.The purpose of this volume is to clarify this dynamic in Russian life, in which stagnation and decay confront hopes and expectations for liberalization. Zemtsov argues that the Soviet political language was self-contradictory, fractured into polarities of good and evil and thus depriving the Russian language of its basic subtlety, coherence, and inner logic.Zemtsov, Ilya is the author of 'Encyclopedia of Soviet Life' with ISBN 9780887383502 and ISBN 0887383505.