First Published in 1988. Understanding Soviet Society has grown out of the authors' experience as sociologists researching and teaching about the Soviet Union. Meant initially as an update to 'Contemporary Soviet Society: Sociological Perspectives' from 1980, this became a new volumebecause of the addition of six new authors, but also because of the major changes occurring in the USSR today that in many ways necessitated new approaches. It examines the fundamnetal institutions of Soviet society- from work and social welfare to politics and the Party- in order order to provide an objective understanding of the social underpinnigs of the Soviet System.

Part I Part I Aspects of Social Stratification; Chapter 1 The Ethnic Factor in Contemporary Soviet Society, Ralph S. Clem; Chapter 2 The Soviet Working Class: Change and its Political Impact, Walter D. Connor; Chapter 3 Rural Society in the Soviet Union, Caroline Humphrey; Chapter 4 Women, Work and Family in the Soviet Union, Michael Paul Sacks; Chapter 5 The Universality of Demographic Processes in the USSR, Robert A. Lewis; Part II PART II Party and People; Chapter 6 Soviet Society and Communist Party Controls: A Case of Constricted Development, Mark G. Field; Chapter 7 Words and Deeds: CPSU Ideological Work, Thomas F. Remington; Part III PART III Everyday Life and Social Problems; Chapter 8 The Sacred and the Secular in the USSR, Jerry G. Pankhurst; Chapter 9 Crime and Criminals in the USSR, Louise I. Shelley; Chapter 10 Full Employment and Labor Utilization in the USSR, David Lane; Chapter 11 The Armed Forces and Soviet Society, Ellen Jones;