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the
public debate of the
glasnost
era created an environment conducive to the reawakening of civil
society. a civil society is one in which interest groups can assert
themselves and can make the state respect their rights. the
introduction of
glasnost led to the
broadening struggle of the independent movement against the
administrative system. civil society soon revealed many aspects and
represented many independent groupings and interests, including the
nascent entrepreneurial class, freedom of expression, religious
freedom, and a multitude of other forces that were suppressed after
october 1917. in the more liberal atmosphere of glasnost
these diverse interests revived, signaling a growing autonomy of
society from party-state structures.
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what
was particularly remarkable about gorbachev抯 period and clearly
marked a new departure was the toleration of ideological and
political activity independent of the authorities. citizens were
allowed to organize into political parties, popular movements,
parliamentary oppositions, and so on, and all this was dramatically
changing the political landscape. the new forms of civic activity
were building links between civil society and the state and acted as
primary schools of democracy by training leaders and structuring
politics.
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before
perestroika,
dissent had been driven deep underground and had been confined to
the activities of small circles of like-minded friends. in the
summer of 1986 in cities across the country these groups began to
legalize their activities and amalgamate into larger political
debate societies. these were set up in major cities, including
moscow, vilnius, and riga, and were often called 揷lubs of public
initiatives?or 揷lubs of socially active citizens.?these
developments became possible following the authorities?decision to
stop arrests on political grounds and to begin the release of
political prisoners. among others, andrei sakharov, the dean of the
soviet dissident movement, was allowed by gorbachev personally to
return to moscow from his internal exile in a closed city on the
volga.
for
the first time in decades the soviet regime tolerated organizations
standing outside the party-state structures and engaged in
independent political activity. so novel were unsanctioned
organizations to the soviet union that in the soviet and foreign
press of the
glasnost
era they quickly earned the name of 搉onformal?organizations, and
their members were referred to as
neformaly
(搉onformals?. the debate clubs aired a variety of political,
environmental, and nationalities issues, and their activities were
mainly informed by the desire to rally support from below for the
reform initiatives of the soviet leadership. most of these groups
described their ideological leanings as democratic socialism, but
some anti-communist groups also began to take part in political
discussions. most of the leaders and activists of the new political
parties that would emerge by 1990 were initiated into politics as
neformaly.
by
the spring of 1988 the membership of all nonformal organizations
taken together was no more than several thousand, including several
hundred activists. clearly, in a country the size of the soviet
union, their collective voice was too weak to alter the existing
political system. but their activities had prepared for the rise of
mass popular movements that would have enough muscle to bring about
fundamental political change.
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