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The Troubled Birth of Russian Democracy: Parties, Personalities, and Programs
The demise of communism in the Soviet Union could not have occurred without the activism of dissident, anticommunist leaders who created and nourished a climate in which ordinary Russians gained the courage to stand up to and defeat communist control. But with communism ousted, what new form of government and what new leaders will emerge in Russia, a society that has never known democracy? Michael McFaul, a research associate at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, and Sergei Markov, an assistant professor at Moscow State University, interviewed anti-communist leaders and collected the documents of anticommunist parties in the months preceding and immedia...
Reforming the Russian Legal System
This book examines how traditional indigenous Russian legal values and the 74-year experience with communism and "socialist legality" are being combined with Western concepts of justice and due process to forge a new legal consciousness in Russia today.
Russian Politics
What went wrong in Russia's decade-old post-communist transition? A group of leading young scholars answer this question by offering assessments of five crucial political arenas during the Yeltsin era: elections, executive-legislative relations, interactions between the central state and the regions, economic reforms, and civil-military relations. All of the contributors recognize that adverse historical legacies have complicated Russian democratization. They challenge structural explanations that emphasize constraints of the pre-existing system, however, and concentrate instead on the importance of elite decisions and institution-building. The authors agree that elites' failure to develop robust political institutions has been a central problem of Russia's post-communist transition. The weakness of the state and its institutions has contributed to a number of serious problems threatening democratic consolidation. These include the tensions between the executive and the legislature, the frail infrastructure for successful market reform, and the absence of proper civilian control over the armed forces.
The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire
This is the first work to set one of the great bloodless revolutions of the twentieth century in its proper historical context. John Dunlop pays particular attention to Yeltsin's role in opposing the covert resurgence of Communist interests in post-coup Russia, and faces the possibility that new institutions may not survive long enough to sink roots in a traditionally undemocratic culture.
The Battle of Konotop 1659
The battle that took place near Konotop in late June 1659 was a continuation of the Muscovite-Cossack war, which began in the fall of 1658, soon after the signing of the Union of Hadiach. Cossack and Tatar detachments trapped a significant portion of the Muscovite army, leading to enormous Russian losses. The unprecedented defeat of the previously invincible forces caused panic in Russia, but the Muscovites’ capacity to turn defeat into political victory, and the fratricidal struggle in Ukraine, known as the “Ruin”, left most of the Cossack lands on the Right Bank of the Dnieper uninhabitable. Konotop is a classic example of a battle won, but a war lost. ariusz Robert Drozdowski, Kseni...
Russia and the New States of Eurasia
This book surveys the possibilities for future alignments both among the new states of the former Soviet Union, and between the new states and their neighbours.
Russia's Unfinished Revolution
For centuries, dictators ruled Russia. Tsars and Communist Party chiefs were in charge for so long some analysts claimed Russians had a cultural predisposition for authoritarian leaders. Yet, as a result of reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, new political institutions have emerged that now require election of political leaders and rule by constitutional procedures. Michael McFaul traces Russia's tumultuous political history from Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985 through the 1999 resignation of Boris Yeltsin in favor of Vladimir Putin. McFaul divides his account of the post-Soviet country into three periods: the Gorbachev era (1985-1991), the First Russian Republic (1991-1993), and the S...
At the Edge of the Nation
Debates over the remote and beguiling Southern Kuril Islands have revealed a kaleidoscope of divergent and contradictory ideas, convictions, and beliefs on what constitutes the “national” identity of post-Soviet Russia. Forming part of an archipelago stretching from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, administered by Russia but claimed by Japan, these disputed islands offer new perspectives on the ways in which territorial visions of the nation are refracted, inverted, and remade in a myriad of different ways. At the Edge of the Nation provides a unique account of how the Southern Kurils have shaped the parameters of the Russian state and framed debates on the politics of identity in the post-Soviet ...
Appeal to Reason
In These Times, the national, biweekly magazine of news and opinion, has provided groundbreaking coverage of the labor movement, the environment, feminism, grassroots politics, minority communities, and the media for twenty-five years. Filled with new writing commissioned specially for this anniversary volume, images, and text highlights of the last quarter-century in the magazine, Appeal to Reason: The First 25 Years of In These Times showcases contributors to the magazine like Noam Chomsky, David Brower, and Alice Walker, to name just a few. But it also asks an important question: Where do we go from here? For answers, Appeal to Reason turns to more than twenty leading progressive writers—including Barbara Ehrenreich, Juan Gonzalez, Salim Muwakkil, and Robert W. McChesney—who take a fresh look at the lessons of the past and suggest directions for the future. Exploring issues ranging from globalization and criminal justice to the environment and culture, Appeal to Reason lays a political and intellectual foundation for the debates, discussions, and movements of the next twenty-five years.
