Power restructuring in China and the Soviet Union

Abstract

Comparing types within the same species, Raymond Aron once wrote, is the essential task of sociology.' Comparative analysis is especially vital in studying the two major communist systems of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union and Communist China. These systems of power represented powerful historical syntheses of imperial national culture, social revolution, and Marxist-Leninist ideology and organization. Despite periods of stability, the Soviet and Chinese Communist systems have been repeatedly shaken by restructuring processes set in motion from within. Notable instances include the Stalin Revolution of