Soviet Marxism's Obituary?
Robert Service looks at how Gorbachev's revolution has left an open agenda for Soviet historians.
Soviet Marxism's death has officially been certified after recent world-shaking events. Mikhail Gorbachev avoided Marxist-Leninist doctrines in his draft party programme in July. Those who plotted the abortive coup against him in August sought to reverse the trend. As the price for Gorbachev's return to office, Boris Yeltsin secured his consent to the dissolution of the Communist Party and the disintegration of the USSR as a unitary state.