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Episode details

Radio 4,08 Nov 1988,30 mins

SeriesGeoffrey Hosking - The Rediscovery of Politics

A Great Power in Crisis

The Reith Lectures

Available for over a year

Geoffrey Hosking, Professor of Russian History at University College London, discusses the changes in Soviet society in his first Reith lecture from the series entitled 'The Rediscovery of Politics'. In this lecture entitled 'A Great Power in Crisis', Professor Hosking discusses the relationship between the Soviet economy and the 'glasnost'. This transparency of government institutions, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev to reduce corruption, has had a fractious effect on society. He asks is this great power in a crisis?

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