OVIET commentators traditionally have associated political corruption with public officials in decadent capitalist systems. The New Soviet Man, they assert, is a dedicated public servant who would never pursue private gain to society's detriment. Such commentators generally attribute instances of corruption among Soviet officials today to vestiges of the past that will wither away as the socialist system becomes ever more firmly established. Yet, an examination of political life in societies as disparate as ancient Rome and the contemporary United States indicates that none of them, including the U.S.S.R., has been entirely free from political corruption. Certainly enough public officials throughout history have been sufficiently tempted to pursue private gain at public expense to suggest that defects in the human character are an important cause of corruption. Indeed, Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers writes that man is vindicative, ambitious, and rapacious, and that it has been invariably found that momentary passions and immediate interests have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than do general or remote considerations of policy, utility, or justice. While the notion that human nature is base may explain why all political systems have experienced corruption, it does not explain why some officials engage in corruption while others do not, nor why some political systems seem to have more corruption than do others. The opportunities and incentives for corruption within and among political systems help explain these differences. An analysis of such factors in the U.S.S.R. suggests that, despite Soviet claims, they are similar in kind if not degree to those found in many other societies.1 The following analysis examines the scope, incentives and opportunities for, and efforts to combat corruption in the U.S.S.R. The study defines corruption as the behavior of public officials which diverges from the formal duties of a public role to serve private ends.2 Three aspects of the definition require brief elaboration.