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The politico-economic reforms launched during the late twentieth century in post-Soviet Russia have led to contradictory and ambiguous results. The new economic environment and mode of governance that emerged have been subjected to serious criticism. What were the causes of these developments? Were they unavoidable for Russia due to specific factors grounded in the country’s previous experiences? Or were they an intended result of actions taken by the leaders of the country during the last few decades? The authors of this book share neither a deterministic approach, which implies that Russia is bound to fail because of the nature of its economic and political evolution, nor a voluntarist approach, which implies that these failures were caused only by the incompetence and/or malicious intentions of its leaders. Instead, this study offers a different framework for the analysis of political and economic developments in present-day Russia. It is based on four ‘i’s—ideas, interests, institutions, and illusions.
This volume contains new translations of four of Pushkin's best works of fiction. The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories, in which Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are witty parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterpiece which combines historical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context.
Pavel Krasheninnikov (born 1964) is a prominent Russian politician, state official, and professor of law. He studied at Sverdlovsk School of Law and then did graduate work there. He subsequently taught at the Ural State Law University. In the 1990s he served as an expert on legislation for the Supreme Soviet and worked in senior posts in various state authorities, including as head of Russia’s Ministry of Justice under Boris Yeltsin. He spent a decade as rector of the Russian School of Private Law in Moscow. At present Krasheninnikov is a deputy in the State Duma, and for 18 years he has led the Duma’s legislative committee. Krasheninnikov took part in the drawing up of a new Civil Code ...
In this timely and incisive book, Sergei Medvedev argues that Russia’s war in Ukraine was not merely a whim of Putin’s obsession: rather, it was the result of two decades of authoritarian degradation and post-imperial ressentiment, a culmination of Putin’s regime and of Russia’s entire imperial history. Building on his prize-winning book The Return of the Russian Leviathan, Medvedev argues that it was not only Putin that started this war, but Russia itself, which, by and large, has imagined and embraced it with enthusiasm, seeking to relive its own military glory and colonial past.
Dr. Lev E. Dobriansky provides a unique, first-person perspective on Russian imperialist behavior in the twentieth century, arguing that even in the Soviet era, Russian statecraft was heavily shaped by traditional imperialist ideology—led by Moscow's self-image as the dominant Eurasian imperial power. This theory was at the heart of Dobriansky's commitment to warning against global Soviet aggression and liberating peoples under Russian repression, culminating in the Captive Nations Resolution (PL 86-90), the US law designating Captive Nations Week and the issuance of a presidential proclamation every July. This resolution played a major role in shaping US policies toward victims of Russian...
Russian Westernizers and Change in International Relations summarizes the Westernizing trend in Russian thought from the early nineteenth century to the present day. This book looks at Russian thinkers and politicians who have considered Western/European civilization to be superior to others and who have drawn the conclusion that Russia consequently ought to align itself with the West, rather than preserving certain traditional Russian values – and that not doing so is an impediment to political, social, and economic evolution. Within this trend of thought, the author identifies four schools – Christian Westernizers, Economic Liberals, Political Liberals, and Social State Supporters – ...
Vladimir Putin has had a major domestic and international impact since being elected Russian President in March 2000 and yet remarkably little is known about the man in the West. Putin: Russia's Choice, written by one of the UK's leading scholars of Russian politics, is the first major study of the man and his politics. Sakwa's discussion provides the biographical and political context to explain Putin's astonishing rise from anonymous KGB apparatchik to leader of one of the world's most important and significant countries.