unreformability thesis
개혁불가능성 테제
The historiographical position holding that the Soviet system was inherently incapable of reforming itself due to its congenital defects, making its collapse inevitable. Most forcefully advanced by totalitarian-school scholars such as Martin Malia and Richard Pipes, who cite the failure of Gorbachev's perestroika as conclusive proof. Stephen F. Cohen named and challenged this as the nonreformability thesis in his 2004 article, arguing that each component of the Soviet system proved remarkably reformable between 1985 and 1991.
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Sources
- Stephen F. Cohen, "Was the Soviet System Reformable?" Slavic Review 63, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 459–488 — coined the term "nonreformability thesis" and critiqued its ideological, conceptual, and historical assumptions.
- Джузеппе Боффа, От СССР к России: История неоконченного кризиса, 1964–1994 (Москва: Международные отношения, 1996), гл. VIII — discusses the post-perestroika spread of the "тезис насчет нереформируемости СССР" and critiques its determinism.
- Александр Семенов, "Чем был Советский Союз и что означает его распад: дискуссии западных историков," Неприкосновенный запас, № 6 (2001) — situates the unreformability thesis within the totalitarian paradigm, identifying Malia and Pipes as its key exponents.
- Стивен Коэн, "Можно ли было реформировать советскую систему," Скепсис (русский перевод статьи из Slavic Review) — Russian translation of Cohen's article, using "нереформируемость советской системы" throughout.