Conclusion

Abstract The flexibility of the rules was shown in the way in which substantial change was handled. In three instances of such substantial change, the 1920s–30s, the 1950s–60s under Khrushchev, and the 1980s under Gorbachev, there were three different outcomes. In the first, changes were successfully negotiated meaning there was no major disruption to either the rules or to oligarch politics; in the second, there was a leadership change, and in the third regime breakdown. The chapter explains these different outcomes and emphasizes the way the rules and their understanding by the oligarchs contributed to the stability of personalist politics and the Soviet regime.