Pieriestrojka – reformowanie spuścizny rewolucji .......... 157

PERESTROIKA – REFORMING THE LEGACY OF THE REVOLUTION

The reforming of the heritage of the revolution by means of the implementation of the mechanisms of mixed economy and pro-democratic procedures in the Soviet Union on the basis of the perestroika of the political, social, economic system and the foreign policy was a qualified success because the totalitarian communist state which emerged as a result of the October coup d’état conducted by the Bolsheviks in 1917 actually ceased to exist. This qualified success was due to the fact that the values peculiar to the humanist spirit of democracy were not internalized, which translated itself into its lack of consolidation in the political system. Similarly as in the case of system-based solutions and the transformation in the mentality-based sphere and at the level of social consciousness, the society was not consolidated. This was a result above all of the functioning of the society at that time, its self-evaluation and beliefs, as well as a result of the disenchantment with the mythical slogans of „democracy” or „free trade”, which were considered as remedies against the social ills of the Soviet society and which failed to realize the hopes which were associated with them.