Emancipation of the nomenclature as a catalyst for the breakup of the Soviet Union

Abstract

In December 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broke up.
Researchers of this problem have classified factors that led to the break-up
of the USSR. There are several groups of such causes: ideological, political,
social, economic, nomenclature or national ones. The essence of this article
will be the presentation of the emancipation of the Soviet nomenclature at
various stages of the history of the USSR till the final stage of this process – the
disintegration of the Soviet empire. The emancipation of the nomenclature
was one of the manifestations of the multi-faceted modernization of the
USSR and its collision with the communist doctrine as an ideology. Various
attempts to reform the Soviet Union, marking epochs in its history, confirmed
the utopian character of Soviet communism in the ideological dimension.
The failed reforms of the communist system contributed to the emergence of
various interest groups within the growing Soviet nomenclature. These groups
were fiercely competing for power, and in that situation the maintenance of
the nomenclature consensus, which bound the Soviet empire, became very
difficult. The last attempt to reform communism and the USSR – perestroika
– weakened the central authority enough to lead to the strengthening of
particularism of the nomenclature. As a result of this complex process,
a large of the Soviet nomenclature gained independence from the centre,
and by entering into alliances or by concessioning national and democratic
movements in union republics, it gained democratic legitimacy and joined the
disassembly of the Soviet Union.