Glasnost in Action (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1991, Glasnost in Action: Cultural Renaissance in Russia is a comprehensive portrait of a society in transition as Professor Nove reflects on the changes taking place in the USSR at that time. While in English, Glasnost means ‘openness’, the author questions what ‘openness’ actually means in the USSR. How is Soviet culture – their art, literature, theatre, music and social life – affected by the new freedom of speech and thought that resulted from Glasnost? Was it Gorbachev’s power and charisma that propelled Glasnost or would it build up enough momentum in Soviet society to continue independently? Professor Nove uses examples from each area of Soviet life in his exploration of the new openness, referring to the release of previously banned films, writings, plays and works of art, while reflecting on the newfound honesty about the country’s Stalinist past and the problems faced today.




Glasnost' in Action


Book Description

First published in 1991, Glasnost in Action: Cultural Renaissance in Russia is a comprehensive portrait of a society in transition as Professor Nove reflects on the changes taking place in the USSR at that time. While in English, glasnost' means 'openness', the author questions what 'openness' actually means in the USSR. How is Soviet culture - their art, literature, theatre, music and social life - affected by the new freedom of speech and thought that resulted from glasnost'? Was it Gorbachev's power and charisma that propelled glasnost' or would it build up enough momentum in Soviet society to continue independently? Professor Nove uses examples from each area of Soviet life in his exploration of the new openness, referring to the release of previously banned films, writings, plays and works of art, while reflecting on the newfound honesty about the country's Stalinist past and the problems faced today.




Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric Federations


Book Description

In the last years of their existence, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) found themselves facing a similar and very grim state of affairs. After their disintegration, the former Yugoslav republics spiralled into a set of ethnic conflicts that did not leave a single one of them unscathed, and in the ex-Soviet space, conflicts were far more limited. This book offers an in-depth analysis of the difference in state collapses and ensuing conflicts in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia by focusing on their asymmetric ethnofederal structure and the different dynamics of ethnic mobilization that the federal units experienced. Moreover, it explores the links between identity politics and international relations, as the latter has been a latecomer in research on ethnonationalism and ethnic conflict. Finally, it contributes to the literature on the democratization-conflict nexus by proposing that the sequencing of ethnic mobilization and political liberalization has significant effects on the likelihood of conflict. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Post-Soviet politics, Balkan politics, ethnic conflict, peace and conflict studies, federalism, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.




Can Russia Change? (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

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 whose co-operation it needed to cope with the escalating interdependencies of the time. Gorbachev, Clemens argues, was the first Soviet leader to recognise both the problems and potential benefits of global interdependence and to explore the possibilities for co-operation between East and West to advance mutual security. Can Russia Change? is unique in its comparative approach and historical perspective, and this reissue will prove invaluable to all those interested in the history of Soviet security and foreign policy, as well as US-Soviet relations.




Theories of Surplus and Transfer (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1990, this is an analysis of the history of western economics from Petty to Supply-Side, through the prism of the controversies over productive labour and its product. It treats the early economists’ "productive-unproductive" dichotomies as shorthands for many other sets of distinctions relevant for boundaries, value and welfare. Central to the debates is the question of whether the economy is said to generate a ‘surplus’. Economists and politicians with views on these matters include the Physiocrats, Smith and Ricardo, Marx and his Soviet and western admirers, the marginalists, Keynes, Polanyi, Becker, and Reagan. The book maps the shifting emphases that economists and social thinkers have placed on markets and ‘mode’ of production generally. This reissue will be useful to students of economic thought, welfare theory and policy, growth economics and economic systems.




Cold War Theatre (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

Cold War Theatre, first published in 1992, provides an account of the theatrical history within the context of East/West politics. Its geographical span ranges from beyond the Urals to the Pacific Coast of the US, and asks whether the Cold War confrontation was not in part due to the cultural climate of Europe. Taking the McCarthy era as its starting point, this readable history considers the impact of the Cold War upon the major dramatic movements of our time, East and West. The author poses the question as to whether European habits of mind, fostered by their cultures, may not have contributed to the political stalemates of the Cold War. A wide range of actors from both the theatrical and political stages are discussed, and their contributions to the theatre of the Cold War examined in a hugely enjoyable and enlightening narrative. This book is ideal for theatre studies students.




The Soviet Union under Gorbachev (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

Gorbachev’s accession to General Secretary promised great changes to the Soviet Union and its relationship with the rest of the world. This book, first published in 1987, discusses the problems faced by Gorbachev when he entered office and how he planned to tackle them. Gorbachev was a figure of genuine debate in the mid-1980s, raising doubts from Western specialists regarding his radicalism and ability to reform the Soviet economic system in particular. Here, Dyker and his colleagues assess the changes Gorbachev had already made to consolidate his power base, alongside those that he was proposing to make to agriculture, industry and foreign relations at the time of publication. The book speculates about how Gorbachev might implement his proposed political and economic reforms, what opposition he might encounter and how successful he would be. A fascinating insight into Soviet economic and political policy in the years leading up to the Union’s collapse, this work will be of particular importance to students and academics researching the personality of Gorbachev and the political and economic history of the Soviet Union.




What is Asia to Us? (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

This book, first published in 1990, considers the uneasy relationship between Russia and Soviet Central Asia. Chapters examine both the significance of Asia to the Russian mind and the place that Asia has occupied in Russian geopolitical thinking in the last hundred years, showing that outbreaks of violence are simply a manifestation of a long-standing tension. This is a remarkable and comprehensive study, which will be of great value to those concerned with the history and future of Central Asia and Siberia.




Political Economy of Reform and Change (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1997, this collection of articles and essays analyses the political economy of reform and change in Eastern Europe during the years of Gorbachev’s perestroika and the years immediately following the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Written by Polish economist Jan Winiecki, between 1984 and 1996, this work explores the issue of the feasibility of reform and change during the period of decline and collapse of communist economic order and, later, the emergence of the capitalist economic order in the post-communist Eastern Europe. Split into three parts, the work considers firstly the failures of Gorbachev’s political economy of reform, secondly the determining factors in the collapse of the Soviet system, and finally the feasibility of the systematic change which began in the wake of its collapse.




Russia


Book Description

This text has established itself as the best general introduction to Russian history, providing a forceful and highly readable survey from earliest times to the post-Soviet State. At the heart of the book is the changing relationship between the State and Russian society at large. The second edition has been substantially rewritten and updated and new material and fresh insights from recently accessible research have been incorporated into every chapter.