Changes in mass consciousness and outlines of parliamentary activity

Abstract

Increasingly frequent reference to ‘the people’ and to a public opinion are raising the basic questions of democracy in the Soviet Union. The mass consciousness of the Stalin years is being modified to some extent by the process of perestroika, though public opinion research shows that people still retain attitudes characteristic of that period. This was reflected in attitudes to the elections to the Congress of People's Deputies in 1990. Political disputes still tend to be between personalities and groups, rather than between programmes and rival policies. Two main streams can be discerned in today's mass consciousness. Both start from the empty shelves and increasingly available comparisons with other countries. The first focuses on corruption and the second economy and concludes that there is a crisis of authority; the second links salvation to a systematic extension of democratic procedures. The first stream is populist and views the second stream with exasperation and scepticism. Surveys show that mass consciousness has shifted from support for traditional ideas and their political advocates to support for proponents of change. It shows also that few people characterize the Soviet Union as socialist, or think that socialism is a desirable short term goal. The fundamental factor remains the Stalinist past, attitudes to it, and the perceived means for moving beyond it. New value orientations are called for that will bring the past into a multifaceted perspective, reflecting the complexity of contemporary Soviet life.