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Contemporary Russia As A Feudal Society
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Book Synopsis Contemporary Russia as a Feudal Society by : V. Shlapentokh
Download or read book Contemporary Russia as a Feudal Society written by V. Shlapentokh and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-11-26 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book offers a theoretical discussion of the feudal model and a preliminary application of the model to post-Soviet Russia. In addition to a review of the feudal model as an ideal type, the author explains the analytical benefits of drawing comparisons between countries and across historical contexts. Specifically, contemporary Russia is compared to Western European countries during the Middle Ages and to the Soviet period in Russian history. The book is devoted to illuminating the most important political, social and economic characteristics of contemporary Russian society.
Book Synopsis Feudal America by : Vladimir Shlapentokh
Download or read book Feudal America written by Vladimir Shlapentokh and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Uses a feudal model to analyze contemporary American society, comparing its essential characteristics to those of medieval European societies"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Kremlin Rising written by Peter Baker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-06-07 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Hedrick Smith's The Russians, Robert G. Kaiser's Russia: The People and the Power, and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb comes an eloquent and eye-opening chronicle of Vladimir Putin's Russia, from this generation's leading Moscow correspondents. With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia launched itself on a fitful transition to Western-style democracy. But a decade later, Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, a childhood hooligan turned KGB officer who rose from nowhere determined to restore the order of the Soviet past, resolved to bring an end to the revolution. Kremlin Rising goes behind the scenes of contemporary Russia to reveal the culmination of Project Putin, the secret plot to reconsolidate power in the Kremlin. During their four years as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser witnessed firsthand the methodical campaign to reverse the post-Soviet revolution and transform Russia back into an authoritarian state. Their gripping narrative moves from the unlikely rise of Putin through the key moments of his tenure that re-centralized power into his hands, from his decision to take over Russia's only independent television network to the Moscow theater siege of 2002 to the "managed democracy" elections of 2003 and 2004 to the horrific slaughter of Beslan's schoolchildren in 2004, recounting a four-year period that has changed the direction of modern Russia. But the authors also go beyond the politics to draw a moving and vivid portrait of the Russian people they encountered -- both those who have prospered and those barely surviving -- and show how the political flux has shaped individual lives. Opening a window to a country on the brink, where behind the gleaming new shopping malls all things Soviet are chic again and even high school students wonder if Lenin was right after all, Kremlin Rising features the personal stories of Russians at all levels of society, including frightened army deserters, an imprisoned oil billionaire, Chechen villagers, a trendy Moscow restaurant king, a reluctant underwear salesman, and anguished AIDS patients in Siberia. With shrewd reporting and unprecedented access to Putin's insiders, Kremlin Rising offers both unsettling new revelations about Russia's leader and a compelling inside look at life in the land that he is building. As the first major book on Russia in years, it is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the country and promises to shape the debate about Russia, its uncertain future, and its relationship with the United States.
Book Synopsis Lost and Found in Russia by : Susan Richards
Download or read book Lost and Found in Russia written by Susan Richards and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2010-12-07 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the fall of communism, Russia was in a state of shock. The sudden and dramatic change left many people adrift and uncertain—but also full of a tentative but tenacious hope. Returning again and again to the provincial hinterlands of this rapidly evolving country from 1992 to 2008, Susan Richards struck up some extraordinary friendships with people in the middle of this historical drama. Anna, a questing journalist, struggles to express her passionate spirituality within the rules of the new society. Natasha, a restless spirit, has relocated from Siberia in a bid to escape the demands of her upper-class family and her own mysterious demons. Tatiana and Misha, whose business empire has blossomed from the ashes of the Soviet Union, seem, despite their luxury, uneasy in this new world. Richards watches them grow and change, their fortunes rise and fall, their hopes soar and crash. Through their stories and her own experiences, Susan Richards demonstrates how in Russia, the past and the present cannot be separated. She meets scientists convinced of the existence of UFOs and mind-control warfare. She visits a cult based on working the land and a tiny civilization founded on the practices of traditional Russian Orthodoxy. Gangsters, dreamers, artists, healers, all are wondering in their own ways, “Who are we now if we’re not communist? What does it mean to be Russian?” This remarkable history of contemporary Russia holds a mirror up to a forgotten people. Lost and Found in Russia is a magical and unforgettable portrait of a society in transition.
Download or read book Darkness at Dawn written by David Satter and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Russia that Satter depicts in this brave, engaging book cannot be ignored . . . Required reading for anyone interested in the post-Soviet state” (Newsweek). Anticipating a new dawn of freedom after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russians could hardly have foreseen the reality of their future a decade later: A country impoverished and controlled at every level by organized crime. This riveting book views the 1990s reform period through the experiences of individual citizens, revealing the changes that have swept Russia and their effect on Russia’s age-old ways of thinking. “With a reporter’s eye for vivid detail and a novelist’s ability to capture emotion, he conveys the drama of Russia’s rocky road for the average victimized Russian . . . This is only half the story of what is happening in Russia these days, but it is the shattering half, and Satter renders it all the more poignant by making it so human.” —Foreign Affairs “[Satter] tells engrossing tales of brazen chicanery, official greed and unbearable suffering . . . Satter manages to bring the events to life with excruciating accounts of real Russians whose lives were shattered.” —The Baltimore Sun “Satter must be commended for saying what a great many people only dare to think.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto) “Humane and articulate.” —The Spectator “Vivid, impeccably researched and truly frightening . . . Western policy-makers would do well to study these pages.” —National Post
Book Synopsis Feudal America by : Vladimir Shlapentokh
Download or read book Feudal America written by Vladimir Shlapentokh and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do Americans live in a liberal capitalist society, where evenhanded competition rules the day, or a society in which big money, private security, and personal relations determine key social outcomes? Vladimir Shlapentokh and Joshua Woods argue that the answer to these questions cannot be found among the conventional models used to describe the nation. Offering a new analytical tool, the authors present a provocative explanation of the nature of contemporary society by comparing its essential characteristics to those of medieval European societies. Their feudal model emphasizes five elements: the weakness of the state and its inability to protect its territory, guarantee the security of its citizens, and enforce laws; conflicts and collusions between and within organizations that involve corruption and other forms of illegal or semilegal actions; the dominance of personal relations in political and economic life; the prevalence of an elitist ideology; and the use of private agents and organizations for the provision of safety and security. Feudal America urges readers to suspend their forward-thinking and futurist orientations, question linear notions of social and historical progression, and look for explanations of contemporary social problems in medieval European history.
Book Synopsis Russia's Crony Capitalism by : Anders Aslund
Download or read book Russia's Crony Capitalism written by Anders Aslund and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia’s future This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia’s economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.
Book Synopsis The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia by : Tomila V. Lankina
Download or read book The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia written by Tomila V. Lankina and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lankina traces the origins of Russia's inequalities over the past two centuries from the Tsarist institution of estates, through communism, to the present day.
Book Synopsis The Politics of Security in Modern Russia by : Mark Galeotti
Download or read book The Politics of Security in Modern Russia written by Mark Galeotti and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Putin era saw a striking 'securitization' of politics, something that he has bequeathed to his chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev. The omens from the early days of the Medvedev presidency have been mixed, marked both by less confrontational rhetoric towards the West and by war with Georgia and continued re-armament. Has the Medvedev generation learned the lessons not just from the Soviet era but also from the Yeltsin and Putin presidencies, or will security remain the foundation of Russian foreign and domestic policy? Fully up-to-date to reflect the evolving Medvedev presidency, the 2008 Georgian war and the impact of the economic downturn, this volume is a much needed objective and balanced examination of the ways in which security has played and continues to play a central role in contemporary Russian politics. The combination of original scholarship with extensive empirical research makes this volume an invaluable resource for all students and researchers of Russian politics and security affairs.
Book Synopsis Freedom, Repression, and Private Property in Russia by : Vladimir Shlapentokh
Download or read book Freedom, Repression, and Private Property in Russia written by Vladimir Shlapentokh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-02 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrates how the emergence of private property and a market economy after the Soviet Union's collapse enabled a degree of freedom while simultaneously supporting authoritarianism.
Book Synopsis Practicing Stalinism by : J. Arch Getty
Download or read book Practicing Stalinism written by J. Arch Getty and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-28 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In old Russia, patron/client relations, "clan" politics, and a variety of other informal practices spanned the centuries. Government was understood to be patrimonial and personal rather than legal, and office holding was far less important than proximity to patrons. Working from heretofore unused documents from the Communist archives, J. Arch Getty shows how these political practices and traditions from old Russia have persisted throughout the twentieth-century Soviet Union and down to the present day. Getty examines a number of case studies of political practices in the Stalin era and after. These include cults of personality, the transformation of Old Bolsheviks into noble grandees, the Communist Party's personnel selection system, and the rise of political clans ("family circles") after the 1917 Revolutions. Stalin's conflicts with these clans, and his eventual destruction of them, were key elements of the Great Purges of the 1930s. But although Stalin could destroy the competing clans, he could not destroy the historically embedded patron-client relationship, as a final chapter on political practice under Putin shows.
Book Synopsis Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia by : Elena Chebankova
Download or read book Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia written by Elena Chebankova and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2020-11-18 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the realm of political discourse there is a distinct gap in understanding between Russia and the West. To an outsider, the ideas that animate the actions of Russia's ruling elite, opposition, and civil society - from the motivations driving Russia's political actors to the class structure and international and domestic constraints that shape Russia's political thinking - remain shrouded in mystery. Contrary to the view that a bleak discursive uniformity reigns in Vladimir Putin's Russia, Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia shows that the country is engaging in serious theoretical debates across a wide spectrum of modern ideologies including liberalism, nationalism, feminism, and multiculturalism. Elena Chebankova argues that the nation is fragmented and the state seeks to balance the various ideological movements to ensure that none dominates. She shows that each of the main ideological trends is far from uniform, but the major opposition is between liberalism and traditionalism. The pluralistic picture she describes contests many current portrayals of Russia as an authoritarian or even totalitarian state. Offering an alternative to the Western lens through which to view global politics, Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia is a major contribution to our understanding of this world power.
Book Synopsis Russia as a Network State by : V. Kononenko
Download or read book Russia as a Network State written by V. Kononenko and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-04-28 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the ambiguous nature of the state in Russia, focusing on elite networks and their role in policy processes. This book examines the paradoxical dualism of state institutions and ruling networks, providing answers as to why some decisions are not implemented, and why the state exists despite the systemic inefficiency of its institutions.
Book Synopsis Socio-Economic Foundations of the Russian Post-Soviet Regime by : Simon Kordonsky
Download or read book Socio-Economic Foundations of the Russian Post-Soviet Regime written by Simon Kordonsky and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simon Kordonsky divides the social structure of contemporary Russia into distinct estates or social groups and describes each organization’s unique resource-based political and economic nature. As he guides readers through Russia’s peculiar service and support estate system, Kordonsky reveals how remarkably effective inventing and institutionalizing threats can be in the distribution of scarce resources in a social system of this kind. His book emphasizes the fundamental differences between resource-based economies and traditional risk-based economies and their role in Russia’s future.
Book Synopsis Understanding Russian Politics by : Stephen White
Download or read book Understanding Russian Politics written by Stephen White and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh and compelling interpretation of Russian politics by a leading authority, this textbook focuses on political developments in the world's largest country under Putin and Medvedev. Using a wealth of primary sources, it covers economic, social and foreign policy, and the 'system' of politics that has developed in recent years. Opposing arguments are presented and students are encouraged to reach their own judgements on key events and issues such as privatisation and corruption. This textbook tackles timely topics such as gender and inequality issues; organised religion; the economic krizis; and Russia's place in the international community. It uses numerous examples to place this powerful and richly-endowed country in context, with a focus on the place of ordinary people which shows how policy is translated to Russians' everyday lives.
Book Synopsis The Crisis of Russian Democracy by : Richard Sakwa
Download or read book The Crisis of Russian Democracy written by Richard Sakwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-16 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The view that Russia has taken a decisive shift towards authoritarianism may be premature, but there is no doubt that its democracy is in crisis. In this original and dynamic analysis of the fundamental processes shaping contemporary Russian politics, Richard Sakwa applies a new model based on the concept of Russia as a dual state. Russia's constitutional state is challenged by an administrative regime that subverts the rule of law and genuine electoral competitiveness. This has created a situation of permanent stalemate: the country is unable to move towards genuine pluralist democracy but, equally, its shift towards full-scale authoritarianism is inhibited. Sakwa argues that the dual state could be transcended either by strengthening the democratic state or by the consolidation of the arbitrary power of the administrative system. The future of the country remains open.
Book Synopsis Putin and Putinism by : Ronald J. Hill
Download or read book Putin and Putinism written by Ronald J. Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After two terms as president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin handed over to his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev on 7 May 2008, and became prime minister. As president, Putin moved swiftly and effectively to overcome the chaotic legacy of his predecessor, post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Focusing on rebuilding the authority of the Russian state, and taking advantage of the rise in world prices of the country’s main asset – oil and natural gas – Putin won unassailable popularity at home and caused apprehension around the world, particularly in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. His methods of rule caused anxiety among liberals and democrats inside Russia and abroad. The legacy of Putin’s presidency poses challenges that demand interpretation. He has not departed from the Russian or the world political scene, and the need to understand and come to terms with Putin’s Russia has not diminished. These essays by an international team of authors are based on presentations to a working conference held in Naples, Italy, in May 2008, supplemented by contributions from authors who were not present at the conference, in order to present a wider selection of views and interpretations of the Putin phenomenon. This book was published as a special issue of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.
