Gaidar’s Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857739581
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis Gaidar’s Revolution by : Petr Aven

Download or read book Gaidar’s Revolution written by Petr Aven and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the collapse of the Soviet Union a team of young economic reformers led by Yegor Gaidar worked to create a new economic future for Russia. Against an overwhelming threat of looming hunger and civil war, they created a market economy which is still in place today. In the face of crisis, a process of 'shock therapy'- involving the end of price regulation, the introduction of privatisation and a reduction in public spending - appeared necessary. Their plans have been the subject of controversy ever since - the path to the new economy was not smooth and Russia continued to struggle with economic crises throughout the 1990s. Yet Gaidar's plans have been widely praised for saving the country from complete collapse. For the first time in this book, the participants in the process reveal their experiences during those frantic days, their insights into Yegor Gaidar and of the formation of post-Soviet Russia. In doing so, this book provides a unique perspective on contemporary Russia, making it an indispensable resource for understanding its economic and political complexities.

Russia

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262304384
Total Pages : 563 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Russia by : Yegor Gaidar

Download or read book Russia written by Yegor Gaidar and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important Russian economist and politician takes a long view of economic history and Russia's development. It is not so easy to take the long view of socioeconomic history when you are participating in a revolution. For that reason, Russian economist Yegor Gaidar put aside an early version of this work to take up a series of government positions—as Minister of Finance and as Boris Yeltsin's acting Prime Minister—in the early 1990s. In government, Gaidar shepherded Russia through its transition to a market economy after years of socialism. Once out of government, Gaidar turned again to his consideration of Russia's economic history and long-term economic and political challenges. This book, revised and updated shortly before his death in 2009, is the result. Gaidar's account of long-term socioeconomic trends puts his country in historical context and outlines problems faced by Russia (and other developing economies) that more developed countries have already encountered: aging population, migration, evolution of the system of social protection, changes in the armed forces, and balancing stability and flexibility in democratic institutions. This is not a memoir, but, Gaidar points out, neither is it “written from the position of a man who spent his entire life in a research institute.” Gaidar's “long view” is inevitably informed and enriched by his experience in government at a watershed moment in history.

State and Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 9780295983493
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (834 download)

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Book Synopsis State and Evolution by : E. T. Gaidar

Download or read book State and Evolution written by E. T. Gaidar and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What was the revolution of the 1990s for Russia?” writes Yegor Gaidar, the first post-Soviet prime minister of Russia and one of the principal architects of its historic transformation to a market economy. “Was it a hard but salutary road toward the creation of a workable democracy with workable markets, a way for Russia to develop and survive in the twenty-first century? Or was it the prologue to another closed, stultified regime marching to the music of old myths and anthems?”

Gaidar’s Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857726161
Total Pages : 472 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis Gaidar’s Revolution by : Petr Aven

Download or read book Gaidar’s Revolution written by Petr Aven and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the collapse of the Soviet Union a team of young economic reformers led by Yegor Gaidar worked to create a new economic future for Russia. Against an overwhelming threat of looming hunger and civil war, they created a market economy which is still in place today. In the face of crisis, a process of 'shock therapy'- involving the end of price regulation, the introduction of privatisation and a reduction in public spending - appeared necessary. Their plans have been the subject of controversy ever since - the path to the new economy was not smooth and Russia continued to struggle with economic crises throughout the 1990s. Yet Gaidar's plans have been widely praised for saving the country from complete collapse. For the first time in this book, the participants in the process reveal their experiences during those frantic days, their insights into Yegor Gaidar and of the formation of post-Soviet Russia. In doing so, this book provides a unique perspective on contemporary Russia, making it an indispensable resource for understanding its economic and political complexities.

State and Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295801239
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

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Book Synopsis State and Evolution by : Yegor Gaidar

Download or read book State and Evolution written by Yegor Gaidar and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: �What was the revolution of the 1990s for Russia?� writes Yegor Gaidar. �Was it a hard but salutary road toward the creation of a workable democracy with workable markets, a way for Russia to develop and survive in the twenty-first century? Or was it the prologue to another closed, stultified regime marching to the music of old myths and anthems?� Few are as well-equipped to consider this matter as Gaidar, noted Russian economist and prime minister during Boris Yeltsin�s early years as post-Soviet Russia�s leader. He is also a student of the socioeconomic history of his country, which he traces in the book with skill and insight. Both Eastern and Western influences are examined in light of Russia�s particular challenges and choices over the years and the kinds of institutions it developed as a result. The author focuses on comparing attitudes toward private property and the persistence of Eastern forms of landownership. He sees Marx�s concept of the �Asiatic mode of production� as unfortunately still reflecting Russian realities. Gaidar�s interesting analysis of Western development offers a perspective on private ownership of property in relation to government ownership that explains a lot about the evolution of socioeconomic and political systems East and West. �If our country begins yet another cycle of privatization of authority and office,� concludes the author, �it will shut itself off from the First World. If we can open up this socioeconomic space, if we can let liberal democratic evolution take its course, then Russia will have every chance in the world to take its rightful place among twenty-first-century civilizations.� State and Evolution was published in Russia in 1994. The English edition includes a new preface discussing the significance of events since that time.

Russia's Capitalist Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Peterson Institute
ISBN 13 : 0881325376
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (813 download)

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Book Synopsis Russia's Capitalist Revolution by : Anders Åslund

Download or read book Russia's Capitalist Revolution written by Anders Åslund and published by Peterson Institute. This book was released on 2007 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Collapse of an Empire

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0815731159
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Collapse of an Empire by : Yegor Gaidar

Download or read book Collapse of an Empire written by Yegor Gaidar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would collapse...." —From the Introduction to Collapse of an Empire The Soviet Union was an empire in many senses of the word—a vast mix of far-flung regions and accidental citizens by way of conquest or annexation. Typical of such empires, it was built on shaky foundations. That instability made its demise inevitable, asserts Yegor Gaidar, former prime minister of Russia and architect of the "shock therapy" economic reforms of the 1990s. Yet a growing desire to return to the glory days of empire is pushing today's Russia backward into many of the same traps that made the Soviet Union untenable. In this important new book, Gaidar clearly illustrates why Russian nostalgia for empire is dangerous and ill-fated: "Dreams of returning to another era are illusory. Attempts to do so will lead to defeat." Gaidar uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why swimming against this tide of history would be a huge mistake. The USSR sowed the seeds of its own economic destruction, and Gaidar worries that Russia is repeating some of those mistakes. Once again, for example, the nation is putting too many eggs into one basket, leaving the nation vulnerable to fluctuations in the energy market. The Soviets had used revenues from energy sales to prop up struggling sectors such as agriculture, which was so thoroughly ravaged by hyperindustrialization that the Soviet Union became a net importer of food. When oil prices dropped in the 1980s, that revenue stream diminished, and dependent sectors suffered heavily. Although strategies requiring austerity or sacrifice can be politically difficult, Russia needs to prepare for such downturns and restrain spending during prosperous times. Collapse of an Empire shows why it is imperative to fix the roof before it starts to rain, and why so

The Challenge of Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191529117
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis The Challenge of Revolution by : Vladimir Mau

Download or read book The Challenge of Revolution written by Vladimir Mau and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2001-02-22 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an challenging and controversial explanation of the recent events in Russia. It examines the causes, processes, and consequences of Russia's recent political development. Drawing on, and criticizing the existing literature, the book also shows how the recent Russian experience casts light on general theories of revolution and comparative political developments. The transformation in Russia is usually compared with transformations in other post-communist countries. The authors argue that the Russian transformation should be explained in the logic of the great revolutions of the past such as the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution. The difficulties and inconsistency of Russian reforms are usually explained as a result of mistakes made by reformers. This book argues, however, that these problems should be considered as a natural consequence of the 'weak state'. In revolution the weakness of state power is inevitable (resulting from social fragmentation, property rights transformation, changes in the interests of different social groups). Hence, the authors argue that most of the transitional problems in Russia were unavoidable. The authors go on to argue that revolutions are usually considered as rapid change made through violence. However, the spontaneous character of change in the situation of a weak state is a much more important feature of any revolution than violence. The book contains unique interviews with four leaders of the Russian transformation - Mikhail Gorbachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Yegor Gaidar, and Gennadii Burbulis - as well as the personal experience of the authors, who were deeply involved in the practical process of Russian transformation.

Days of Defeat and Victory

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Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295801220
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

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Book Synopsis Days of Defeat and Victory by : Yegor Gaidar

Download or read book Days of Defeat and Victory written by Yegor Gaidar and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yegor Gaidar, the first post-Soviet prime minister of Russia and one of the principal architects of its historic transformation to a market economy, here presents his lively account of governing in the tumultuous early 1990s. Though still in his forties, Gaidar has already played a pivotal role in contemporary Russian political history, championing the cause of dramatic economic reform, aggressive privatization of state enterprises, and painful fiscal discipline in the face of widespread popular resistance. Gaidar’s youthfulness, energy, and daring are symbolic of a new phenomenon in Russian politics - the emergence of a younger generation of politicians with a distinctly technocratic bent, looking firmly to the United States and Europe for inspiration and sharing little of the old generation’s nostalgia for Communist stability. It was largely the implementation of Gaidar’s policies that drove the Russian parliament to rebel against Boris Yeltsin in 1993, leading to the bloody tank assault on the parliament itself. Though Yeltsin prevailed, it was clear that the political and social costs of “shock therapy” were too great for Russia’s fragile democracy to bear, and Gaidar himself was ousted to appease the conservatives. His unfinished agenda was put on hold, though he later returned when Yeltsin needed to placate international financial forces. Gaidar remains active in Russian politics, having formed his own political party, Russia’s Democratic Choice. In this book, he brings his story through Yeltsin’s cliffhanger re-election in 1996, and assesses the still-precarious state of the market reforms and democratic politics.

Russia's Unfinished Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801456967
Total Pages : 797 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Russia's Unfinished Revolution by : Michael McFaul

Download or read book Russia's Unfinished Revolution written by Michael McFaul and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Second Russian Republic (1993-present). The first two were, he believes, failures—failed institutional emergence or failed transitions to democracy. By contrast, new democratic institutions did emerge in the third era, though not the institutions of a liberal democracy. McFaul contends that any explanation for Russia's successes in shifting to democracy must also account for its failures. The Russian/Soviet case, he says, reveals the importance of forging social pacts; the efforts of Russian elites to form alliances failed, leading to two violent confrontations and a protracted transition from communism to democracy. McFaul spent a great deal of time in Moscow in the 1990s and witnessed firsthand many of the events he describes. This experience, combined with frequent visits since and unparalleled access to senior Russian policymakers and politicians, has resulted in an astonishingly well-informed account. Russia's Unfinished Revolution is a comprehensive history of Russia during this crucial period.

Sale of the Century

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Sale of the Century by : Chrystia Freeland

Download or read book Sale of the Century written by Chrystia Freeland and published by Crown. This book was released on 2000 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1990s, all eyes turned to the momentous changes in Russia, as the world's largest country was transformed into the world's newest democracy. But the heroic images of Boris Yeltsin atop a tank in front of Moscow's White House soon turned to grim new realities: a currency in freefall and a war in Chechnya; on the street, flashy new money and a vicious Russian mafia contrasted with doctors and teachers not receiving salaries for months at a time. If this was what capitalism brought, many Russians wondered if they weren't better off under the communists. This new society did not just appear ready-made: it was created by a handful of powerful men who came to be known as the oligarchs and the young reformers. The oligarchs were fast-talking businessmen who laid claim to Russia's vast natural resources. The young reformers were an elite group of egghead economists who got to put their wild theories into action, with results that were sometimes inspiring, sometimes devastating. With unparalleled access and acute insight, Chrystia Freeland takes us behind the scenes and shows us how these two groups misused a historic opportunity to build a new Russia. Their achievements were considerable, but their mistakes will deform Russian society for generations to come. Along with a gripping account of the incredible events in Russia's corridors of power, Freeland gives us a vivid sense of the buzz and hustle of the new Russia, and inside stories of the businesses that have beaten the odds and become successful and profitable. She also exposes the conflicts and compromises that developed when red directors of old Soviet firms and factories yielded to -- or fought -- the radically new ways of doing business. She delves into the loophole economy, where anyone who knows how to manipulate the new rules can make a fast buck. Sale of the Century is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall economic thriller -- an astonishing and essential account of who really controls Russia's new frontier.

Russia's Revolution from Above, 1985-2000

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 135132618X
Total Pages : 618 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis Russia's Revolution from Above, 1985-2000 by : Gordon Hahn

Download or read book Russia's Revolution from Above, 1985-2000 written by Gordon Hahn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fall of the Soviet communist regime in 1991 offers a challenging contrast to other instances of democratic transition and change in the last decades of the twentieth century. The 1991 revolution was neither a peaceful revolution from below as occurred in Czechoslovakia nor a negotiated transition to democracy like those in Poland, Hungary, or Latin America. It was not primarily the result of social modernization, the rise of a new middle class, or of national liberation movements in the non-Russian union republics. Instead, as Gordon Hahn argues, the Russian transformation was a bureaucrat-led, state-based revolution managed by a group of Communist Party functionaries who won control over the Russian Republic (RSFSR) in the mid-1990s.Hahn describes how opportunistic Party and state officials, led by Boris Yeltsin, defected from the Gorbachev camp and proceeded in 1990-91 to dismantle the institutions that bound state and party. These revolutionaries from above seized control of political, economic, natural and human resources, and then separated the party apparatus from state institutions on Russian Republic territory. With the failed August 1991 hard-line coup, Yeltsin banned the Communist Party and decreed that all Union state organs, including the KGB and military were under RSFSR control. In Hahn's account, this mode of revolutionary change from above explains the troubled development of democracy in Russia and the former Soviet republics.Hahn shows how limited mobilization of the masses stunted the development of civil societies and the formation of political parties and trade unions with real grass roots. The result is a weak society unable to nudge the state to concentrate on institutional reforms society needs for the development of a free polity and economy. Russia's Revolution from Above goes far in correcting the historical record and reconceptualizing the Soviet transformation. It should be read by historians, economists, political scientists, and Russia area scholars.

The Firebird and the Fox

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108484468
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Firebird and the Fox by : Jeffrey Brooks

Download or read book The Firebird and the Fox written by Jeffrey Brooks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century of Russian artistic genius, including literature, art, music and dance, within the dynamic cultural ecosystem that shaped it.

Russia's Unfinished Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801439001
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (39 download)

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Book Synopsis Russia's Unfinished Revolution by : Michael McFaul

Download or read book Russia's Unfinished Revolution written by Michael McFaul and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-23 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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—described by the New York Times as "one of the leading Russia experts in the United States"—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 Second Russian Republic (1993–present). The first two were, he believes, failures—failed institutional emergence or failed transitions to democracy. By contrast, new democratic institutions did emerge in the third era, though not the institutions of a liberal democracy. McFaul contends that any explanation for Russia's successes in shifting to democracy must also account for its failures. The Russian/Soviet case, he says, reveals the importance of forging social pacts; the efforts of Russian elites to form alliances failed, leading to two violent confrontations and a protracted transition from communism to democracy. McFaul spent a great deal of time in Moscow in the 1990s and witnessed firsthand many of the events he describes. This experience, combined with frequent visits since and unparalleled access to senior Russian policymakers and politicians, has resulted in an astonishingly well-informed account. Russia's Unfinished Revolution is a comprehensive history of Russia during this crucial period.

Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1403940266
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (39 download)

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Book Synopsis Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe by : Moira Donald

Download or read book Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe written by Moira Donald and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until the dramatic fall of Communist regimes in the East placed the possibility of revolution on the agenda once again, sudden and decisive political change had appeared a largely anachronistic phenomenon in Europe. Looking back over the twentieth century, it is plausible to argue that the twentieth, rather than the nineteenth, has been the 'most revolutionary of centuries'. In this volume, leading specialists from a variety of disciplines examine the changing and conflicting meanings of revolution in modern and contemporary Europe. Contributions include both broad essays on the global and historical context of European revolution and specific case studies reinterpreting a variety of revolutionary experiences.

An Economic History of the U.S.S.R.

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Author :
Publisher : IICA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis An Economic History of the U.S.S.R. by : Alec Nove

Download or read book An Economic History of the U.S.S.R. written by Alec Nove and published by IICA. This book was released on 1969 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study in historical perspective of developments in economic policy in the USSR - covers economic structures and economic administration prior to and during the 1st world war, the position during the 50 years of the communist regime, political leadership of the country, the collective economy, industrialization, political problems, economic growth, etc. Bibliography pp. 389 to 391, and statistical tables.

The Challenge of Revolution

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199241503
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis The Challenge of Revolution by : Vladimir Aleksandrovich Mau

Download or read book The Challenge of Revolution written by Vladimir Aleksandrovich Mau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides an challenging and controversial explanation of the recent events in Russia. It examines the causes, processes, and consequences of Russia's recent political development. Drawing on, and criticizing the existing literature, the book also shows how the recent Russianexperience casts light on general theories of revolution and comparative political developments. The transformation in Russia is usually compared with transformations in other post-communist countries. The authors argue that the Russian transformation should be explained in the logic of the greatrevolutions of the past such as the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution.The difficulties and inconsistency of Russian reforms are usually explained as a result of mistakes made by reformers. This book argues, however, that these problems should be considered as a natural consequence of the 'weak state'. In revolution the weakness of state power is inevitable(resulting from social fragmentation, property rights transformation, changes in the interests of different social groups). Hence, the authors argue that most of the transitional problems in Russia were unavoidable. The authors go on to argue that revolutions are usually considered as rapid changemade through violence. However, the spontaneous character of change in the situation of a weak state is a much more important feature of any revolution than violence.The book contains unique interviews with four leaders of the Russian transformation - Mikhail Gorbachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Yegor Gaidar, and Gennadii Burbulis - as well as the personal experience of the authors, who were deeply involved in the practical process of Russian transformation.