ALEXANDER ZINOVIEV: AN INTRODUCTION TO HISWORK Also by Michael Kirkwood and published by Palgrave Macmillan ALEXANDER ZINOVIEV AS WRITER AND THINKER (editor with Philip Hanson) LANGUAGE PLANNING IN THE SOVIET UNION (editor) Alexander Zinoviev Alexander Zinoviev: An Introduction to His Work Michael Kirkwood Senior ucturer in Russian School oj Slavonic and East European Studies University oj London M © Michael Kirkwood 1993 Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1993 All rights reserved. No reproduction. copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any Iicence permitting Iimited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W 1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be Iiable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1993 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-12485-5 ISBN 978-1-349-12483-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-12483-1 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset by Ponting-Green Publishing Services Sunninghill, Berkshire For Alexander Zinoviev, my friend and (unwitting) mentor Contents List 0/ Abbreviations Vlli Introduction IX Part One Prolegomena 1 Homo Sovieticus 3 2 Zinoviev's Style and Language 29 Part Two The Brezhnev Era 3 Ziiaiushchie vysoty 61 4 Svetloe budushchee 89 5 Zheltyi dom 114 6 Kommunizm kak real'nost' 148 Part Three The Gorbachev Era 7 Gorbachevizm 173 8 Katastroika 196 9 Konets kommunizma? 221 Notes 248 BibliolJ'aphy 257 Index 263 Vll List of Abbreviations G Gorbachevizm ING Idi na Golgofu IS Il superpotere in URSS K Katastroika. Povest' 0 perestroike v Partgrade KKR Kommunizm kak real'nost' MDMCh Moi dom - moia chuzhbina SB Svetloe budushchee TGF The Grand Failure TM The Madhouse TRC The Reality of Communism TRF The Radiant Future VPR V preddverii raia YH The Yawning Heights ZhD Zheltyi dom ZV Ziiaiushchie vysoty viii Introduction This is not a book in the 'life and works of' mould. Zinoviev's output to date, not counting his professional work, occupies over a metre of the shelf space in my study. This volume will take up probably less than three centi metres. A full discussion of his work in one volume is quite obviously impossible. I have essayed a partial discussion of so me of his work. I have been prompted to write this book by an awareness of the fact that Zinoviev is undervalued, both as a writer and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. He is a 'difficult' writer who makes great cognitive demands on his readers and also a writer who constantly broadcasts his opinion of Western Soviet studies scholarship by dismissing it in toto. Not surpris ingly, he has been virtually ignored by the vast majority of Western Sovietologists. This is a major source of concern to me, for Zinoviev has contributed more to my understanding of the Soviet Union than the rest of Russian literature and Soviet studies scholarship put together. I do not exaggerate. Given the constraints of space, I have been obliged to be highly selective in my treatment of this writer. Of the various approaches which I could have adopted (thematic, chronological, genre-based, biographical) I have chosen a combination of the chronological and the genre-based. The reasons for my choice were dictated by the readership I had in mind. The book has been written for people who have a good command of Russian and who are interested, professionaBy or otherwise, in the Soviet Union and how it works. With the exception of the first two chapters, each chapter examines an individual book. An English translation for aB of these books bar Konets kommunizma? (The End of Communism?) is, or shortly will be, available. I earnestly recommend, how ever, that the works should be read in their original Russian version if at aB possible. Given the fantastic rate at which developments in the Soviet Union are taking place, it seemed to me important that I should present Zinoviev's views on these events. That consideration partly explains IX