Understanding Russia

Understanding Russia PDF Author: Marlene Laruelle
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538114879
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This timely book provides a balanced and comprehensive overview of the geographical, historical, political, cultural, and geostrategic factors that drive Russia today. Russia has long inspired fear in the West, but as the authors argue, Russia is fearful as well. Three decades after the transformations launched by perestroika, multiple ghosts haunt both Russian elites and ordinary citizens, ranging from concerns about territorial challenges, societal transformations, and economic decline to worries about the country’s vulnerability to external intervention. Faced with a West that emerged victorious from the Cold War, a shockingly dynamic China, and former Soviet republics claiming their right to emancipate themselves from Moscow’s stranglehold, Russia is constantly questioning its identity, its development path, and its role on the international scene. The country hesitates between two strategies: take refuge in a new isolation and revive the old notion of being a “besieged fortress,” or replay the messianic myth of a Third Rome, the last bastion of Christian values in the face of a decadent West. Explaining Russia’s perspective, Marlene Laruelle and Jean Radvanyi offers a much-needed analysis that will help readers understand how the country deals with its domestic issues and how these influence Russian foreign policy.

Understanding Russia

Understanding Russia PDF Author: Marlene Laruelle
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538114879
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Get Book Here

Book Description
This timely book provides a balanced and comprehensive overview of the geographical, historical, political, cultural, and geostrategic factors that drive Russia today. Russia has long inspired fear in the West, but as the authors argue, Russia is fearful as well. Three decades after the transformations launched by perestroika, multiple ghosts haunt both Russian elites and ordinary citizens, ranging from concerns about territorial challenges, societal transformations, and economic decline to worries about the country’s vulnerability to external intervention. Faced with a West that emerged victorious from the Cold War, a shockingly dynamic China, and former Soviet republics claiming their right to emancipate themselves from Moscow’s stranglehold, Russia is constantly questioning its identity, its development path, and its role on the international scene. The country hesitates between two strategies: take refuge in a new isolation and revive the old notion of being a “besieged fortress,” or replay the messianic myth of a Third Rome, the last bastion of Christian values in the face of a decadent West. Explaining Russia’s perspective, Marlene Laruelle and Jean Radvanyi offers a much-needed analysis that will help readers understand how the country deals with its domestic issues and how these influence Russian foreign policy.

Boris Yeltsin and Russia's Democratic Transformation

Boris Yeltsin and Russia's Democratic Transformation PDF Author: Herbert J. Ellison
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780295995816
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Boris Yeltsin is one of modern history's most dynamic and underappreciated figures. In this vivid, analytical masterwork, Herbert J. Ellison establishes Yeltsin as the principal leader and defender of Russia's democratic revolution - the very embodiment of Russia's fragile new liberties, including the evolving respect for the rule of law and private property as well as core freedoms of speech, religion, press, and political association. In 1987 President Mikhail Gorbachev expelled Boris Yeltsin from his team of reform politicians, but Yeltsin rebounded from this potentially devastating setback to become the leader of the Russian democratic movement. He created a new office of Russian president, to which he was elected; designed a democratic constitution for the Soviet Union that precipitated a coup attempt by traditionalist communist leaders; granted independence to the nations of the Soviet Union; and replaced Communist Party rule with democracy and the socialist economy with a market economy. In a short period, he had succeeded in becoming the first popularly elected leader in a thousand years of Russian history. He had blocked violent attempts at counter-revolution and overcome powerful resistance to his reform program. His achievements rank among the most extraordinary feats of political leadership in the twentieth century.

The Institutional Economics of Russia's Transformation

The Institutional Economics of Russia's Transformation PDF Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138621039
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This book applies institutional theory to the analysis of the post-Soviet Russian economy to bring to light the reasons why reforms have gone awry. Emphasis is put on the elements missed in the early blueprints of reforms: constraints embodied in formal and especially informal institutions. Other aspects considered include the dominant model of power relationships and the networks of localized and personalized relationships among economic actors. The first part provides a general description of the core concepts of institutional theory, including both the 'old' institutionalism of T. Veblen and J. Commons and the 'new' institutional economics of R. Coase, O. Williamson and D. North, and in the second part an institutional model of the post-Soviet Russian economy is developed. In the course of the analysis the authors discuss such unresolved issues as post-privatization development in Russia and validity of the Coase theorem in the post-Soviet institutional context. Rich empirical data grounds the discussion throughout.

The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State

The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State PDF Author: Stephan Leibfried
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191643254
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 928

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Book Description
This Handbook offers a comprehensive treatment of transformations of the state, from its origins in different parts of the world and different time periods to its transformations since World War II in the advanced industrial countries, the post-Communist world, and the Global South. Leading experts in their fields, from Europe and North America, discuss conceptualizations and theories of the state and the transformations of the state in its engagement with a changing international environment as well as with changing domestic economic, social, and political challenges. The Handbook covers different types of states in the Global South (from failed to predatory, rentier and developmental), in different kinds of advanced industrial political economies (corporatist, statist, liberal, import substitution industrialization), and in various post-Communist countries (Russia, China, successor states to the USSR, and Eastern Europe). It also addresses crucial challenges in different areas of state intervention, from security to financial regulation, migration, welfare states, democratization and quality of democracy, ethno-nationalism, and human development. The volume makes a compelling case that far from losing its relevance in the face of globalization, the state remains a key actor in all areas of social and economic life, changing its areas of intervention, its modes of operation, and its structures in adaption to new international and domestic challenges.

Transformation in Russia and International Law

Transformation in Russia and International Law PDF Author: Tarja Långström
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004480269
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 517

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Book Description
Since the end of the Cold War the relationship between the internal constitution of a state and its international behaviour has been a subject of much scholarly interest. Assuming that this connection matters the author analyses the transformation from the USSR to the Russian Federation. Does a liberal Russia behave better than the non-liberal USSR? Are Russia's attitudes towards international law different than those of the former USSR? How much continuity is there and how much change has occurred in the scholarship of international law in Russia? How are Russia's treaties made and implemented? What is the role of international law in the Russian legal system? The author shows that international human rights played an important role in the Soviet perestroika and in the subsequent reforms in the Russian Federation. She argues that at the surface level the transformation in Russia has been remarkable, notably so with regard to the role of international law in the domestic legal system. Drawing from a wide range of materials - Soviet/Russian history, legislation, court cases and doctrinal writings - the book takes a cultural and historical perspective to analysis of legal change.

Russia's Food Revolution

Russia's Food Revolution PDF Author: Stephen K. Wegren
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367547752
Category : Food industry and trade
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book analyzes the food revolution that has occurred in Russia since the late 1980s, documenting the transformation in systems of production, supply, distribution, and consumption. It examines the dominant actors in the food system; explores how the state regulates food; considers changes in patterns of food trade interactions with other states; and discusses how all this and changing habits of consumption have impacted consumers. It contrasts the grim food situation of 1980s and 1990s with the much better food situation that prevails at present and sets the food revolution in the context of the wider consumer revolution, which has affected fashion, consumer electronics, and other sectors of the economy.

The Transformation of Russia’s Armed Forces

The Transformation of Russia’s Armed Forces PDF Author: Roger N. McDermott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317618173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
At no time since the end of the Cold War has interest been higher in Russian security issues and the role played in this by the modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces. The continued transformation of its Armed Forces from Cold War legacy towards a modern combat capable force presents many challenges for the Kremlin. Moscow’s security concerns domestically, in the turbulent North Caucasus, and internationally linked to the Arab Spring, as well as its complex relations with the US and NATO and its role in the aftermath of the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2014 further raises the need to present an informed analytical survey of the country’s military, past, present and future. This collection addresses precisely the nature of the challenges facing Russian policymakers as they struggle to rebuild combat capable military to protect Russian interests in the twenty-first century. This book was based on a special issue of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

Russia's Women

Russia's Women PDF Author: Barbara Evans Clements
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520070240
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
By ignoring gender issues, historians have failed to understand how efforts to control women—and women's reactions to these efforts—have shaped political and social institutions and thus influenced the course of Russian and Soviet history. These original essays challenge a host of traditional assumptions by integrating women into the Russian past. Using recent advances in the study of gender, the family, class, and the status of women, the authors examine various roles of Russian women and offer a broad overview of a vibrant and growing field.

Russia's Transformation

Russia's Transformation PDF Author: Robert Vincent Daniels
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847687091
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
An astute observer of the Soviet Union, Bill Daniels collects here his observations of political change in the USSR over a twenty-five-year period. Complete with a new introduction, conclusion and explanatory notes, these essays offer a moment-by-moment picture of the decline and fall of the Communist state. Beginning with the era of impasse from Brezhnev to Chernenko, Daniels then traces the beginnings of reform initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, the crisis and failure of perestroika, and the tribulations of Boris Yeltsin's government. Capturing the weaknesses of past and present regimes, while illustrating the difficulties of anticipating the course of events in Russia, Daniels's commentaries will have a central place in the ongoing debate about the failure of Western scholarship to predict the Soviet collapse and its aftermath. Specialists, students, and general readers alike will find his work a stimulating point of departure for considering the Soviet and post-Soviet paradox.

Migrant Workers in Russia

Migrant Workers in Russia PDF Author: Anna-Liisa Heusala
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317328000
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
Russia has a very large pool of economic migrants, up to 25% of the workforce according to some estimates. Although many migrants, many from former Soviet countries which are now independent, entered Russia legally, they frequently face bureaucratic obstacles to legal employment and Russian citizenship, factors which have led to a very large “shadow economy”. This book presents a comprehensive examination of migrant labour in Russia. It describes the nature of migrant labour, explores the shadow economy and its unfortunate consequences, and discusses the rise of popular sentiment against migrants and the likely impact. The book also sets the Russian experiences of migrant labour in context, comparing the situation in Russia with that in other countries with significant migrant labour workforces. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.