Conversations with Gorbachev

Conversations with Gorbachev PDF Author: Mikhail Gorbachev
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231529279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar were friends for half a century, since they first crossed paths as students in 1950. Although one was a Russian and the other a Czech, they were both ardent supporters of communism and socialism. One took part in laying the groundwork for and carrying out the Prague spring; the other opened a new political era in Soviet world politics. In 1993 they decided that their conversations might be of interest to others and so they began to tape-record them. This book is the product of that “thinking out loud” process. It is an absorbing record of two friends trying to explain to one another their views on the problems and events that determined their destinies. From reminiscences of their starry-eyed university days to reflections on the use of force to “save socialism” to contemplation of the end of the cold war, here is a far more candid picture of Gorbachev than we have ever seen before.

Conversations with Gorbachev

Conversations with Gorbachev PDF Author: Mikhail Gorbachev
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231529279
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book Here

Book Description
Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar were friends for half a century, since they first crossed paths as students in 1950. Although one was a Russian and the other a Czech, they were both ardent supporters of communism and socialism. One took part in laying the groundwork for and carrying out the Prague spring; the other opened a new political era in Soviet world politics. In 1993 they decided that their conversations might be of interest to others and so they began to tape-record them. This book is the product of that “thinking out loud” process. It is an absorbing record of two friends trying to explain to one another their views on the problems and events that determined their destinies. From reminiscences of their starry-eyed university days to reflections on the use of force to “save socialism” to contemplation of the end of the cold war, here is a far more candid picture of Gorbachev than we have ever seen before.

Gender Politics and Post-Communism

Gender Politics and Post-Communism PDF Author: Nanette Funk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429759002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
In the wake of communism’s decline, women’s concerns had become increasingly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yet most discussions of post-communism changes had neglected women’s experiences. Originally published in 1993, this title was the first collection of its kind, presenting original essays by women scholars, politicians, activists, and former dissidents from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, along with essays by Western feminists and scholars. They discuss gender politics during the often turbulent transition and crises of post-communism, offering vivid accounts and analyses of the conditions facing women in each country.

Perestroika and the Party

Perestroika and the Party PDF Author: Francesco Di Palma
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1789200210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Countless studies have assessed the dramatic reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, but their analysis of the impact on European communism has focused overwhelmingly on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations. This ambitious collection takes a much broader view, reconstructing and evaluating the historical trajectories of glasnost and perestroika on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Moving beyond domestic politics and foreign relations narrowly defined, the research gathered here constitutes a transnational survey of these reforms’ collective impact, showing how they were variably received and implemented, and how they shaped the prospects for “proletarian internationalism” in diverse political contexts.

Russia and Eurasia at the Crossroads

Russia and Eurasia at the Crossroads PDF Author: Egor S. Stroev
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642601499
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
A team of high-ranking members from the CIS administration and economic experts analyses the market-oriented transformations as well as specific features of the market evolving in the 12 states. Using a wide range of statistical data, the authors deal with industry, agriculture, the military-industrial complex, the scientific and social sphere, finance and investment, market infrastructure, and international trade. They develop a centrist concept for sustainable development and economic integration that offers the possibility of overcoming the current problems. Provides Western readers with an insider view of the present situation and a wealth of valuable statistical data.

Russian Crossroads

Russian Crossroads PDF Author: Yevgeny Primakov
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300130538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
A prominent Russian politician who served as prime minister, foreign minister, and head of foreign intelligence during the 1990s, Yevgeny Primakov has been part of all vital decisions on Russian domestic and foreign policy for the past two decades. His memoir is both an insider’s account of post-perestroika Russian politics and a statement from a representative of the enlightened Russian establishment on their nation’s relationship with America and the world. Primakov is a specialist in the Middle East, and his personal involvement in the problems of that region make his commentary particularly valuable as he articulates Russia’s view of the conflicts there and its stance toward Iraq, Israel, and Palestine. Primakov also offers pertinent opinions on the Gulf War, NATO enlargement, spying, and other aspects of contemporary international relations, and he gives personal assessments of a wide variety of major players, from Saddam Hussein and Yassir Arafat to Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton. Providing behind-the-scenes information about government shake-ups in Moscow, the history of speculative privatizations, the formation of the new political and economic oligarchy, and much more, this book will be an invaluable aid to political analysts, historians, and anyone interested in Russia’s recent past and future plans.

Belarus

Belarus PDF Author: Jan Zaprudnik
Publisher: Westview Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
The author examines Belarus' complex past and analyzes the challenges facing the republic in the wake of a disintegrating Soviet Union.

Chernenko, the Last Bolshevik

Chernenko, the Last Bolshevik PDF Author: Ilya Zemtsov
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000675017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, a figure who appeared to the outside worid as a commonplace Russian bureaucrat cut from the mold of a Gogol short story, was elevated in 1984 to the post of general sec retary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. Thus, a post held by such awesome, fearsome figures as Lenin and Stalin passed into the hands of someone perceived as a nondescript bureaucrat, de void of ideas or initiative, and crippled by old age and infirmity.A singular merit of this work is that it shows how far from the mark were these perceptions. This is the only full-length treatment of Chernenko. in contrast to the vast tomes written on his five predecessors as well as on the present incumbent, Mkrhail Gorbachev. The work delves into archival materials never before reported in either the East or West. The picture that emerges is not of some run-of-the-mill ap paratchik, but of a figure who in the con text of the Brezhnev era came forth with ideas that were revolutionary, at least in the sense of a realization of the deep mal aise into which Soviet economy and so ciety had fallen.Zemtsov's volume explains the paradox of a servile conservative member of th Politburo becoming an innovative, even courageous, leader during the thirteen fateful months he held Soviet power, it is a tribute to this effort at reconstruction that what emerges is a rounded human being and not simply a political actor. This analytical study of the transformation of a peasant into a politician fills out a missing link without which the current impulse to reform in the U.S.S.R. is hard to under stand or appreciate.

Chernenko

Chernenko PDF Author: Ilʹja G. Zemcov
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780887382413
Category : Heads of state
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description


Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century

Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Mikhail Gorbachev
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857731947
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
Mikhail Gorbachev and Daisaku Ikeda are contemporaries raised in different cultures: Gorbachev is a statesman whose origins are the Marx-inspired world of communism while Ikeda is Buddhist inspired by the thirteenth century Japanese sage, Nichiren. Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century emerged from a series of conversations between these two men. Together they explore their experiences of life amidst the turmoil of the twentieth century and together they search for a common ethical basis for future development. They conclude that values are born of culture and that peace, progress and social justice can only be achieved through sincere communication and cultural exchange. As the new century begins, they have sought to turn the spotlight on the challenges which face humanity. The book is a call for dialogue in pursuit of values that bridge culture and time.

Central Peripheries

Central Peripheries PDF Author: Marlene Laruelle
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1800080131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. Although relative latecomers on the international scene, the Central Asian states see themselves as globalized, and yet in spite of – or perhaps precisely because of – this, they hold a very classical vision of the nation-state, rejecting the abolition of boundaries and the theory of the ‘death of the nation’. Their unabashed celebration of very classical nationhoods built on post-modern premises challenges the Western view of nationalism as a dying ideology that ought to have been transcended by post-national cosmopolitanism. Marlene Laruelle looks at how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. She takes into consideration the ways in which the Soviet past has influenced the construction of national storylines, as well as the diversity of each state’s narratives and use of symbolic politics. Exploring state discourses, academic narratives and different forms of popular nationalist storytelling allows Laruelle to depict the complex construction of the national pantheon in the three decades since independence. The second half of the book focuses on Kazakhstan as the most hybrid national construction and a unique case study of nationhood in Eurasia. Based on the principle that only multidisciplinarity can help us to untangle the puzzle of nationhood, Central Peripheries uses mixed methods, combining political science, intellectual history, sociology and cultural anthropology. It is inspired by two decades of fieldwork in the region and a deep knowledge of the region’s academia and political environment. Praise for Central Peripheries ‘Marlene Laruelle paves the way to the more focused and necessary outlook on Central Asia, a region that is not a periphery but a central space for emerging conceptual debates and complexities. Above all, the book is a product of Laruelle's trademark excellence in balancing empirical depth with vigorous theoretical advancements.’ – Diana T. Kudaibergenova, University of Cambridge ‘Using the concept of hybridity, Laruelle explores the multitude of historical, political and geopolitical factors that predetermine different ways of looking at nations and various configurations of nation-building in post-Soviet Central Asia. Those manifold contexts present a general picture of the transformation that the former southern periphery of the USSR has been going through in the past decades.’ – Sergey Abashin, European University at St Petersburg