As perestroika has dramatically altered the political climate in the Soviet Union, so too has Mikhail Gorbachev's agenda of reform modified America's disposition towards its superpower rival. Yet how do the Soviet people and policy-makers perceive the United States and its political and socio-economic structure? How do American politics and society appear when scrutinized by Marxist-Leninist theory? How do Soviet ideologues and intellectuals struggle to place American successes within a rigid ideological framework?

In this work, Richard Mills examines the ways in which Soviet analysts interpret American domestic and foreign politics and the complex factors that shape continuities and changes in the Soviet framework.