Contenu du sommaire : Alexandre Herzen l'Européen

Herzen and Michelet The relationship between these equally considerable writers is of a special kind. Their frienship, which lasted nearly twenty years, outlived the major distresses of their time, but shows nevertheless some deep differences of meaning, especially about Russia.

Herzen and Dostoevskij: An Essay The essay tries to show that main figures in the novels Besy (Stepán Trofimovič Verxovenskij) and Podrostok (Versilov) are the resuit of long prepared polemics of Dostoevskij with Herzen, based on the Platonistic idea of dialogue : the confrontation of two opposing points of view, either of which could be right. Without Herzen who voluntarily emigrated from Russia to Europe Dostoevskij could not have written these novels.

'Communism at once!': Commune Movement in Soviet Ukraine (Kharkiv area) from 1919 to 1935 On the basis of local archival materials (from villages, rajony...), this work considers ail types of communes around the first capital of Soviet Ukraine. In 1919, communes were forms of political and social mobilization of rural plebeians interacting with the Soviet State. This kommunija caused cruel pogrom-like reactions in the villages. Under the NEP, students, artists, and educationalists founded and ruled urban communes... For the regime and the elites in power, this 'New Way of life' was another laboratory for social control. On the other hand, peasants' communes remained socially and ideologically marginal. This prepared for the regime's subversion of utopia after 1929. Rural communes surrender to 'complete collectivization' and starvation. Although rural and urban communards showed opposition, yet they were not heard. Borrowing from the revolutionary rhetoric of the civil war, the regime prevented the poor classes from voicing up.

The Transformation of the Political Space in Russia During Perestroïka (1986-1991): The Moscow 'Informal' Political Clubs and Their Leaders This article sets out the main conclusions of a Ph.D. on the Moscow 'informal' political clubs created during Perestroïka. The objective is to observe how the Soviet political system was shaken, then collapsed through the history of informal clubs. Although they played an important part in these processes, these original actors are not well-known. The leading thread of this study is the relations between the clubs and the institutions of power. At their origins (1987), the main clubs supported Party 'reformers' while subtly undermining the system from within. With the first contested elections in 1989-1990, however, the structure of this game in particular and of the political space in general changed radically, and the arrival of a new wave of activists concurred to swinging the 'informal movemenť towards overt opposition. In its radical phase, the movement, now called 'democratic', became a basis on which B. Yeltsin could lean on his way to power.