Human rights in the Soviet Union / Al Szymanski.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-332) and index.

1. Introduction: Freedom: some definitions -- The historical logic of restricted emigration and exit -- Comparative analysis -- A note on sources --

2. The Asian nationalities in the USSR : Origins of Soviet power in Central Asia -- Economic development -- Welfare -- Education -- Cultural development -- Politics -- Soviet policy towards Islam -- Anti-Soviet and Anti-Socialist nationalist attitudes and movements -- Attitude of Soviet Asians to USSR intervention in Afghanistan -- Conclusion --

3. The European nationalities in the USSR: Economic development -- Health care and education -- Cultural development -- Nationalism and dissidence in the European republics -- The Jewish people in the USSR -- Conclusion --

4. Women in the USSR: The rights of women -- The family, housework and child-care -- Education -- Labour outside the home -- Protective legislation -- Women in political positions -- Analysis -- Conclusion --

5. Economic rights: Living standards -- Imports -- Social consumption and the social wage -- Job rights -- Rights of participation in the management of enterprises -- General enterprise meetings and the permanent production conferences -- The role of enterprise branches of the unions -- The role of the enterprise branch of the Communist Party -- Job rights in the USA -- Conclusion --

6. The land of the free: The American revolution and civil liberties -- Federalists vs. Jeffersonians: 1798-1808 -- The conflict over slavery and civil liberties: 1830-77 -- The repression of the working-class movement: 1866-1914 -- Repression of the left: 1917-24 -- Depression, war and civil liberty: 1930-45 -- Repression of the American Communist party and civil liberties: 1947-56 -- The 1960s and political repression -- United States support for repressive regimes overseas in the 1960s and 1970s -- Conclusion --

7. Toleration and repression in the USSR: 1918-54: Civil war, invasion, and relaxation (1918-27) -- How history judges: I. famine and collectivization (1928-34) -- How history judges II. The growing threat of invasion and "The Great Purge" (1935-39) -- Traitor mania and the Moscow trials of 1936-38 -- The numbers of those affected -- The politics of the executions: 1936-38 -- Causes and effects -- Invasion, reconstruction and the renewed threat of invasion: 1941-54 --

8. Tolerance and repression in the Soviet Union: 1965-82: Trends in contemporary Soviet policy and the dissident movement -- Definition of dissident activity in the USSR -- The extent of the dissident movement -- Strategy and tactics of the dissident movement -- Sanctions against dissidents -- Dissidents categorized as schizophrenic -- Numbers of dissidents confirmed -- Political tendencies of dissident activities -- Comparisons with the USA --

9. Conclusion: Summary -- State power and civil liberty -- Factors determining the level of the civil liberty of public advocacy -- The class basis of cold war -- Trends in rights in capitalist and socialist societies.

"This scholarly investigation by a noted American sociologist examines the whole spectrum of human rights in the USSR. Relying deliberately almost exclusively on Western sources of information, the author argues that the level of human rights in the Soviet Union is considerably more advanced than is generally supposed in the West. In a novel departure, Professor Szymanski compares and contrasts