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Author: James H. Billington
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press
ISBN: 0801879760
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
Billington describes the contentious discussion occurring all over Russia and across the political spectrum. He finds conflicts raging among individuals as much as between organized groups and finds a deep underlying tension between the Russians' attempts to legitimize their new, nominally democratic identity, and their efforts to craft a new version of their old authoritarian tradition. After showing how the problem of Russian identity was framed in the past, Billington asks whether Russians will now look more to the West for a place in the common European home, or to the East for a new, Eurasian identity.
Author: James H. Billington
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press
ISBN: 0801879760
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Get Book
Book Description
Billington describes the contentious discussion occurring all over Russia and across the political spectrum. He finds conflicts raging among individuals as much as between organized groups and finds a deep underlying tension between the Russians' attempts to legitimize their new, nominally democratic identity, and their efforts to craft a new version of their old authoritarian tradition. After showing how the problem of Russian identity was framed in the past, Billington asks whether Russians will now look more to the West for a place in the common European home, or to the East for a new, Eurasian identity.
Author: Mary Platt Parmele
Publisher: IndyPublish.com
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Author: James H. Billington
Publisher: New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218
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Book Description
Billington examines the changes that have occurred in the former Soviet Union over recent years and argues the necessity of the USA and other Western powers making positive economic, political, strategic and cultural responses to the new circumstances.
Author: Shireen Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315290111
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 625
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Book Description
This richly detailed study traces the shared history of Russia and Islam in expanding compass - from the Tatar civilization within the Russian heartland, to the conquered territories of the Caucasus and Central Asia, to the larger geopolitical and security context of contemporary Russia on the civilizational divide. The study's distinctive analytical drive stresses political and geopolitical relationships over time and into the very complicated present. Rich with insight, the book is also an incomparable source of factual information about Russia's Muslim populations, religious institutions, political organizations, and ideological movements.
Author: Eliot Borenstein
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501716352
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 410
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Book Description
In this original and timely assessment of cultural expressions of paranoia in contemporary Russia, Eliot Borenstein samples popular fiction, movies, television shows, public political pronouncements, internet discussions, blogs, and religious tracts to build a sense of the deep historical and cultural roots of konspirologiia that run through Russian life. Plots against Russia reveals through dramatic and exciting storytelling that conspiracy and melodrama are entirely equal-opportunity in modern Russia, manifesting themselves among both pro-Putin elites and his political opposition. As Borenstein shows, this paranoid fantasy until recently characterized only the marginal and the irrelevant. Now, through its embodiment in pop culture, the expressions of a conspiratorial worldview are seen everywhere. Plots against Russia is an important contribution to the fields of Russian literary and cultural studies from one of its preeminent voices.
Author: Kathryn E. Stoner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190860731
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
An assessment of Russia that suggests that we should look beyond traditional means of power to understand its strength and capacity to disrupt international politics. Too often, we are told that Russia plays a weak hand well. But, perhaps the nation's cards are better than we know. Russia ranks significantly behind the US and China by traditional measures of power: GDP, population size and health, and military might. Yet 25 years removed from its mid-1990s nadir following the collapse of the USSR, Russia has become a supremely disruptive force in world politics. Kathryn E. Stoner assesses the resurrection of Russia and argues that we should look beyond traditional means of power to assess its strength in global affairs. Taking into account how Russian domestic politics under Vladimir Putin influence its foreign policy, Stoner explains how Russia has battled its way back to international prominence. From Russia's seizure of the Crimea from Ukraine to its military support for the Assad regime in Syria, the country has reasserted itself as a major global power. Stoner examines these developments and more in tackling the big questions about Russia's turnaround and global future. Stoner marshals data on Russia's political, economic, and social development and uncovers key insights from its domestic politics. Russian people are wealthier than the Chinese, debt is low, and fiscal policy is good despite sanctions and the volatile global economy. Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime faces virtually no organized domestic opposition. Yet, mindful of maintaining control at home, Russia under Putin also uses its varied power capacities to extend its influence abroad. While we often underestimate Russia's global influence, the consequences are evident in the disruption of politics in the US, Syria, and Venezuela, to name a few. Russia Resurrected is an eye-opening reassessment of the country, identifying the actual sources of its power in international politics and why it has been able to redefine the post-Cold War global order.
Author: Laura Engelstein
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501721291
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
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Book Description
The revolution of 1905 challenged not only the social and political structures of imperial Russia but the sexual order as well. Throughout the decade that followed-in the salons of the artistic and intellectual avant-garde, on the pages of popular romances, in the staid assemblies of physicians, psychiatrists, and legal men—the talk everywhere was of sex. This eagerly awaited book, echoing the title of a pre-World War I bestseller, The Keys to Happiness, marks the first serious attempt to understand the intense public interest in sexuality as a vital dimension of late tsarist political culture. Drawing on a strong foundation of historical sources—from medical treatises and legal codes to anti-Semitic pamphlets, commercial fiction, newspaper advertisements, and serious literature—Laura Engelstein shows how Western ideas and attitudes toward sex and gender were transformed in the Russian context as imported views on prostitution, venereal disease, homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, and other themes took on distinctively Russian hues. Engelstein divides her study into two parts, the first focusing on the period from the Great Reforms to 1905 and on the two professional disciplines most central to the shaping of a modern sexual discourse in Russia: law and medicine. The second part describes the complicated sexual preoccupations that accompanied the mobilization leading up to 1905, the revolution itself, and the aftermath of continued social agitation and intensified intellectual doubt. In chapters of astonishing richness, the author follows the sexual theme through the twists of professional and civic debate and in the surprising links between high and low culture up to the eve of the First World War. Throughout, Engelstein uses her findings to rethink the conventional wisdom about the political and cultural history of modern Russia. She maps out new approaches to the history of sexuality, and shows, brilliantly, how the study of attitudes toward sex and gender can help us to grasp the most fundamental political issues in any society.
Author: John Van Oudenaren
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501775774
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
Through the lens of James Billington and the institution he led as Librarian of Congress during a key period of US-Russian relations, The Geopolitics of Culture examines culture as a neglected area of US foreign policy. Billington advised presidents and members of Congress and mobilized the resources of the Library of Congress to promote reform in Russia. He believed that rather than preaching to the Russians, the United States should expose the rising generation of Russian leaders to what was best in America and encourage them to rediscover positive elements in pre-Bolshevik Russian culture. The Geopolitics of Culture is the first book to chronicle Billington's influence on US engagement with Russia as it transitioned from communism to democracy under Gorbachev and Yeltsin and back to authoritarianism under Yeltsin and Putin. Drawing on published and archival sources (including recently released papers) and interviews with current and retired Library of Congress staff members, John Van Oudenaren casts new light on this era. Billington's efforts led to a remarkable degree of cooperation between the Library of Congress and Russian cultural and political institutions. Yet these efforts ultimately failed as Putin turned back toward authoritarianism. The experience of the Library of Congress during this period nonetheless holds important lessons for today. Billington believed that a transition to democracy in Russia was essential if the United States was to head off the geopolitical nightmare of a Eurasia dominated by an alliance of hostile authoritarian powers. The "geopolitics of culture" thus remains a challenge for US foreign policy.
Author: Nikolas K. Gvosdev
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351492276
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
Since its inception, The National Interest, the leading realist journal of international affairs, has devoted a good deal of attention to the relationship between Moscow and Washington, from the dying days of the Cold War to the prospect of true Russian-American partnership following 9/11. This work brings together the reflections and ruminations of statesmen, policymakers, and academics on developments and forecasts about one of the world's leading geo political actors. This edited volume is the third in a series of readers co-produced by The National Interest and Transaction Publishers. Each brings together in one place prescient analysis and provocative assessments, this case, about Russia, published in the last decade. For some of the contributors, Russia is to be viewed with suspicion, a state whose current weakness has only retarded, not extinguished, its hegemonic ambitions to dominate Eurasia. For others, Russia is a strategic partner and prospective ally. This volume tackles the hard questions. Readers have the opportunity to listen in on a number of the great debates surrounding Russia policy. Is Russia finished as a great power, or will its influence grow in the coming years? Can a true partnership be forged between Washington and Moscow based on common interests and values? To what extent can Russia be integrated into the institutions of the Euro-Atlantic community? Has American policy aided or harmed the course of market reforms and democratization over the past decade? Is the -war on terrorism- a sufficient foundation for a new U.S.-Russia relationship? How can conflicting interests, whether in Iran, Iraq, or North Korea, be dealt with? This book presents a fascinating and multifaceted look at a country that is likely to remain a major factor in U.S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century. The list of distinguished contributors to this volume includes Zbigniew Brzezinski, William Odom, Stephen Sestanovich, Robert Legvold, Martin Malia, Alexey Pushkov, and Dimitri K. Simes.
Author: Susanna Rabow-Edling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351370308
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 138
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Book Description
Nineteenth-century Russian intellectuals were faced with a dilemma. They had to choose between modernizing their country, thus imitating the West, or reaffirming what was perceived as their country's own values and thereby risk remaining socially underdeveloped and unable to compete with Western powers. Scholars have argued that this led to the emergence of an anti-Western, anti-modern ethnic nationalism. In this innovative book, Susanna Rabow-Edling shows that there was another solution to the conflicting agendas of modernization and cultural authenticity – a Russian liberal nationalism. This nationalism took various forms during the long nineteenth century, but aimed to promote reforms through a combination of liberalism, nationalism and imperialism.
