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The Soviet Union (1989) examines the state of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s. The Soviet Union claimed to offer a new social, economic and political order – a planned socialist system – and this book looks at the Soviet alternative and the extent of its success. It surveys the major components of Soviet society and examines the principal issues and debates that surround its assessment.
The first systematic study of famine in all parts of Europe from the Middle Ages to present. It compares the characteristics, consequences and causes of famine in regional case studies by leading experts to form a comprehensive picture of when and why food security across the continent became a critical issue.
First published in 1990, this ground-breaking book sought to determine whether contemporary Russia had the capacity to change and if, in so doing, it could alter the complex web of East-West relations from a zero-sum struggle to a state of peaceful competition and mutual security. In order to answer this question, the author compares advances and setbacks in arms control and security affairs with co-operation on less politically salient issues such as environmental degradation. He finds that in the nearly seventy years preceding Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power, the Kremlin relied on several basic approaches to foreign relations. These policies isolated the Soviet Union from those nations...
Russian Leaders A Bibliography With Indexes
This book presents a new picture of the politics, economics and process of government in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. Based in large part on original research in recently declassified archive collections, the book examines the full complexity of government, and provides an overview of the internal development of the Soviet Union in this period, locating it in the broader context of Soviet history.
Modernisation has been a constant theme in Russian history at least since Peter the Great launched a series of initiatives aimed at closing the economic, technical and cultural gap between Russia and the more ‘advanced’ countries of Europe. All of the leaders of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia have been intensely aware of this gap, and have pursued a number of strategies, some more successful than others, in order to modernise the country. But it would be wrong to view modernisation as a unilinear process which was the exclusive preserve of the state. Modernisation has had profound effects on Russian society, and the attitudes of different social groups have been crucial to the s...
Nearly twenty years after the collapse of socialism, the countries of post-socialist Eastern Europe have experienced divergent trajectories of political development. This book looks at why this is the case, based on the assumption that societies, or social orders, can be distinguished by the extent to which competitive tendencies contained within them – economic, political, social and cultural – are resolved according to open, rule-based processes. The book explores which economic conditions allow for increased levels of political competition, and it tests the hypothesis that the nature of a country’s ties with the international economy, and the level of competition within a country’...
Speaking Soviet with an Accent presents the first English-language study of Soviet culture clubs in Kyrgyzstan. These clubs profoundly influenced the future of Kyrgyz cultural identity and fostered the work of many artists, such as famed novelist Chingiz Aitmatov. Based on extensive oral history and archival research, Ali Igmen follows the rise of culture clubs beginning in the 1920s, when they were established to inculcate Soviet ideology and create a sedentary lifestyle among the historically nomadic Kyrgyz people. These "Red clubs" are fondly remembered by locals as one of the few places where lively activities and socialization with other members of their ail (village or tribal unit) cou...
This book presents perspectives on the changes that have taken place within the field of comparative education, while noting various continuing traditions. Its contributors come from a wide range of countries and contexts, and present their work within a framework set by the 11th congress of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). The book makes a valuable methodological as well as a conceptual contribution to the field.
This book examines the social and cultural impact of the 'thaw' in Cold War relations, decision-making and policy formation in the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev. It highlights the fact that many of the reform initiatives generally associated with Khrushchev personally, and with his period of office more generally, often had their roots in the Stalin period both in their content and in the ways in which they were implemented. Individual case studies explore key aspects of Khrushchev's period of office, including the introduction of the 1961 Communist Party Programme and popular responses to it, housing policy, the opening up of the Soviet Union to the West during the 1957 youth festival, public consultation campaigns and policy implementation in education and family law, the boost given to voluntary organisations such as women's councils and the trade unions, the reshaping of the internal Soviet security apparatus, the emergence of political dissent and the nature of civil-military relations as reflected in the events of the workers' uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962. The findings offer an important new perspective on the Khrushchev era.