Socialist Voices in the Soviet Union

Here are two influential Soviet reformers, known for their fundamental criticisms of the society and their desire to move toward some form of democratic socialism. Yuri Afanasyev is a historian and member of the Supreme Soviet; Tatyana Zaslayskaya is a sociologist. We take these statements, with permission and thanks, from an interesting new book, Voices of Glasnost, edited by Stephen F. Cohen and Katrina van den Heuvel (published by W.W. Norton), which consists of full-length interviews with a variety of Soviet reformers and intellectuals.—Eds.

The usual idea that we have some kind of socialism today, at least some kind of deformed socialism, doesn’t hold up to historical scrutiny or logic. We no longer have Stal...