Editor's Introduction

Abstract

In our opening selection by Eduard Batalov (How Shall We Fill the Ideological Vacuum?), the author argues that, given the widespread chaos associated with the current reform process, the need to impose order in the ideological and intellectual sphere is no less important for the ruling authorities than the need for stability in the socioeconomic and political spheres. Apparently recognizing the urgency of this task, Boris Yeltsin has appealed for the development of a new national idea for Russia. Much of Batalovs discussion is essentially a warning that this appeal by Yeltsin (recalling Soviet-era directives from the center) must not become the basis for the emergence of a new official state ideology. What would be the price paid for the integrative and stabilizing hnction that such an ideology would perform? In Batalovs view, there is a real danger that the new national idea-like the Marxism-Leninism of the past-will have a binding, coercive, and at the same time total character. In the course of his discussion Batalov considers alternatives to the ordering role of a new official ideology.