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This paper proceeds from the premise that Russian iurodivye—or fools for Christ—display a remarkable resemblance to the Hebrew prophets. As it explores the genealogical link between these two cultural paradigms, the paper shows that, during the various stages of the developmental history of holy foolery, the figure of the Old Testament prophet served as the holy fool's literary and behavioural model. The influence of the prophetic paradigm on the cultural phenomenology and hagiographic imagery of iurodstvo was exercised through the prominence assigned to the prophet in the written, visual and audible texts available to the Eastern Slays from the beginning of Christian era. On the literary level, this enduring influence is discernable in the prophetic topoi that reached holy foolish hagiography directly and indirectly. While the direct venues are confined to Old Testament texts, which described the lives and acts of the Hebrew prophets, the indirect ones include New Testament texts and hagiographies. When the holy fool finds his place in the urban setting, his paradigm undergoes crucial changes, losing its ascetic aspects and acquiring the prophetic ones. This shift of emphasis defines Russian hagiography and cultural tradition, where the iurodivyi often emerges as the Russian version of the Hebrew prophet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the popular response to Soviet myths in the post-Soviet period through the lens of the complicated treatment of Zoia Kosmodem'ianskaia. As arguably the most famous Soviet World War II martyr, Kosmodem'ianskaia's image splintered after glasnost' and has been located at the nexus of debate in various media since 1991. This paper poses questions about the fracturing of national memory when a nation has undergone upheaval: about the stability of heroes, about citizens' responses to them, and about heroes' transformation in the new regime. Catriona Kelly has demonstrated that the treatment of a national hero can illuminate the circumstances that produced the hero and the cultural climate of subsequent decades. Building on her work, this article asks "Why and how has the image of Kosmodem'ianskaia remained relevant while other Soviet heroes have been neglected since 1991?" This article posits that Kosmodem'ianskaia's continued significance lies above all in the flexibility of her image and the transitional aspects of her body. Her depictions in various contexts represent prominent responses to the authoritarian regime which gave birth to both Kosmodem'ianskaia and her legacy. The variety of her images demonstrates the continued relevance of this figure two decades after the collapse of the USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called Bulldozer, Rose, Orange, and Tulip Revolutions have reminded us that as repressive as a regime may be, the real power ultimately belongs to the masses, especially when its forces are supported and channelled into non-violent action in pursuit of clear and concrete objectives. This article shows how the first of these events, the "Bulldozer Revolution," unfolded in Serbia resulting in the ouster of the dictator Milošević. The lessons were then absorbed by Georgian activists who were similarly successful in replacing Shevardnadze with Saakashvili. In Ukraine, the election of Kuchma's protégé, Yanukovych, was foiled when the "Orange Revolution" installed Yushchenko instead. The author also chronicles the "Tulip Revolution" of Kyrgyzstan. A notable feature of this paper is that, in addition to analyzing these "successful" revolutions, it also looks at some clearly unsuccessful ones, namely those attempted in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. But the current global economic crisis could lead to more political changes in the former Soviet Union, whether in Belarus, the Caucasus, Central Asia, or even Russia itself. The article argues that the "colour revolutions" of 2000-2005 present a real danger to the authoritarian regime of Medvedev-Putin in Russia, and that their fear of them is hence thoroughly justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Russia, post-communist reforms to state social benefit policies have shown contradictory views of gender. On the one hand, reform showed a desire to promote gender equality between individuals, a view in which men and women alike were considered autonomous citizens. On the other hand, there was an impulse to consider women as a needy group dependent on special help from the state. This paper examines three related areas of policy: pronatalist policy, child welfare benefits, and old age pensions, in order to reveal unresolved issues in Russian social policies towards women and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proceeding from Lord Acton's insight that "exile is the nursery of nationality," this paper examines a peculiar historical instance of dislocation as a relevant matrix for the articulation of national identity. I inquire into aspects of the elaboration of French national consciousness among French émigrés of the revolutionary period in Russia, approaching the subject at two levels: first, the maîtres à danser, the run-of- the- mill émigrés who abandon cosmopolitan certitudes or pretensions of a "monde français" and abstractions of dynastic loyalty, in favour of nostalgic attachment to a tangible paine, very much at odds with the Russian otherness into which they have been thrust. Second, the maîtres à penser, those émigré thinkers in whom the Revolution provokes a reconsideration of established universals and who conceptualize Russia in terms of a project to reconcile universal and particular or national values. I examine the dilemmas and ultimate failure of such a projection by focusing on the work of Joseph de Maistre. On both levels, the historical case studied here is an exemplification of the proposition that nationalism is founded on a disenchantment with the world, and that physical estrangement from both the world to which one believes oneself to belong as well as spiritual estrangement from the world in which one treads, may provide a critical context for defining collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Russia does not yet have a widespread term like the GermanOstalgie, it has witnessed an extensive social and cultural longing for its Soviet past, which we can define by the term “Back in the USSR”. This expression has taken on a vast range of meanings, becoming a multi-purpose label for disparate phenomena, such as online stores selling Soviet memorabilia, websites dedicated to Sovietbyt, and nostalgia-based marketing strategies. Nostalgia for the Soviet past has inspired a host of Russian writers and film directors. The author attempts to determine the main features of “Back in the USSR” via the analysis of two nostalgic texts, namely Andrei Strel′nikov’s novelBack in the USSR. A Nostalgic Novel(2001) and Valerii Rozhnov’s television seriesBack in the USSR(2010). As the author demonstrates, nostalgia is mobilized in these texts according to the principle ofpars pro toto, examples of which include the citation of official Soviet discourse, the dissemination of “relics” from the Soviet past (everyday objects, food, etc.), and heterotopia. Representing Soviet space as an existing place within modern Russia, both works pulsate with “new romanticism”. The author’s reading of these texts reveals that while post-Soviet Russia has yet to deal with its past, it is seeking to do so via new forms of artistic expression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes the evolution of nostalgic sentiment in Russia over the past 25 years. Unlike in the 1990s, the nostalgic perception of the Soviet past in the 2000s was transformed under the influence of a new government ideology. Leonid Parfenov’s projectNamedniin both its forms – a television program and a book anthology – is an example of reflexive nostalgia for the Soviet period of 1946–1991. Reflexive nostalgia as expressed by liberal intellectuals presumes a freedom of interpretation. Thus,Namednidoes not reflect the official “patriotic” discourse. The article discusses the specifics of the television and book versions, the significance of visual and literary imagery, and the relationship between history and historical memory. BecauseNamedniexhibits signs of an autobiographical text, the article concludes that memory takes a higher priority than historical science in Parfenov’s project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the formation of nostalgic sentiment in contemporary Russia. Nostalgic emotions which idealize the Soviet experience are typical of Russian society today. To a great extent, they are a natural consequence of the forming of historical memories concerning the recent past. However, to a greater extent, they must be viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon formed in the context of the social catastrophe that accompanied the collapse of the USSR. Nostalgia is amplified by political practices. Nostalgic sentiment is also sustained and cultivated by the mass media, which responds both to consumer demand and to political trends. Nostalgia for what was lost in the aftermath of a social catastrophe transforms a psychological reaction, typical of the older generation, into a nostalgia of catastrophes. It is the particular condition of a society that has lived through complicated historical periods, when dramatic changes resulted in the loss of the behavioural models and values which used to define people’s lives. The nostalgic mindset facilitates the mythologization of certain intervals of Soviet history as a “golden age”, one that is not completely lost. The period of the 1950s to 1970s is particularly actively mythologized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The history of twentieth-century Russian Orthodoxy has been written largely in terms of the Church and state, martyr and oppressor, all within the traditional paradigm of ineluctable, ubiquitous secularization. This article shifts the focus from Bolshevik and bishop to believer, framed within the more recent model that emphasizes "believing without belonging". While that new paradigm fits the Russian case, the latter certainly had unique specifics: it was precisely the coercive disestablishment of the Church that empowered parishioners and inadvertently laid the foundations for the post-Soviet religious revival. While the depth and meaning of that revival is open to dispute and calibration, it has unquestionably posed a dramatic contrast to contemporary Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the example of Archpriest Ioann Vostorgov, this article analyzes how during the final decade of the Russian empire, the colonization of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East, as well as the state's engagement in East Asia, created new opportunities for Orthodox clergymen to participate in Russian imperial aspirations in the region. Asia had captured the imagination of Vostorgov, providing him with a backdrop for articulating the pivotal role that the Orthodox Church would perform in forging the future empire and a new world order. Facing an environment of porous borders, hostile neighbours, along with dizzying religious and ethnic diversity, Vostorgov supported the resettlement of Orthodox peasants and the intensification of missionary work, both inside and outside of Russia's borders, which he believed would secure the future of the empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this article is to complicate the existing scholarly account of Russian policies toward the hajj, which heretofore have been studied primarily as an aspect of the tsarist state's relations with Islam and empire building. This article demonstrates that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the hajj came to be understood by many educated Russians within and outside the government as a highly complex and contested "pilgrim question" which engaged a broad range of difficult issues: problems of governance, such as an aspiration for more effective regulation of increased mass mobility, identification of border-crossers and sanitary control, as well as issues of empire, socio-political and confessional order, and economic development. The essence of the"question" was how to order the travel of Muslim pilgrims to the holy places outside of the empire's borders. Imperial expansion, the growth of the empire's Muslim population, and the development of long-distance transportation all contributed to an increasing number of Muslim pilgrims from Russia. In response, and inspired by new conceptualizations of the role of a modern state in relation to its subjects, some Russian officials sought to take greater control of the hajj. By focusing on the Russian government and public debate on how to regulate the hajj, this article examines why and how educated Russians increasingly came to see the annual Muslim pilgrimage as a "question." It discusses the different dimensions of this problem and what the proposed regulation entailed. Finally, the article suggests why the "pilgrim question" remained a contested issue in late imperial Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of why some Russian citizens look upon Josef Stalin respectfully today. Based upon the results of an original nationwide survey conducted by the Levada Analytical Center and supplemented by seventy field interviews, this article posits that a considerable number of Russians view Stalin respectfully on account of three factors. First, Stalin remains a somewhat revered historical figure in part because most Russians harbour no feelings of shame about the Soviet past. Additionally, the tendency of some to rationalize Stalin's main policies of the 1930s, by claiming that there was no other way for the USSR to industrialize than according to the course adhered to by Stalin, helps to safeguard the former General Secretary's reputation. That said, the primary reason why some Russians view Stalin respectfully is due to the pervasiveness of nostalgia for the Soviet period, a widespread phenomenon which serves to bolster Stalin's image as a leader whose contributions led to the realization of great achievements. This article contends that feelings of respect for Stalin are mainly grounded in how Russians evaluate the present ordering of society in comparison to the Soviet past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the life and work of the pre-eminent painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Russian Empire, Ilya Repin, and analyzes his manifold connections with the land of his birth, Ukraine. Although Repin came to be known as the central figure of the Russian national school of art, he maintained close links to his Ukrainian homeland, always had close Ukrainian friends and colleagues, and repeatedly turned to Ukrainian themes during his long career as a painter. The article also briefly examines Repin's identity and national loyalties within the context of the turbulent political developments of his time and the evolving separation of Ukrainian from imperial Russian identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fundamental changes in Europe's political map following the end of the Cold War have led to a new competition of hegemonic interpretations of history and national memory. In particular this has happened in the former socialist Eastern European countries (notably in the Baltic States, Poland, and Western Ukraine) where there has been a big demand to establish a new state identity distancing these countries from the socialist past. For the Russian socio-cultural and political environment the given identity political demand has created a challenging terrain in which symbolic, and irrevocably political, resources for national identity are forced to be calibrated in line with domestic and foreign policy concerns. In this regard, the public usage of "The Great Patriotic War" and its ramifications has been the most notable manifestation, which exhibits the political significance of history in these identity debates. In order to grasp the manifestations of this significance, this article examines the uses of the terms "The Great Patriotic War" (Velikaia Otechestvennaia voina, VOV) and "The Second World War" (Vtoraia mirovaia voina, VMV) in the Russian mainstream media over the course of the last ten years. For this purpose the Integrum databases (Russian-language media corpus of more than 400 million documents) provide a productive tool for specified queries related to VOV and VMV allowing the examination of major themes that these two terms activate in the Russian public discourse. We argue that whereas the VOV signifies the "inner" canonized framework for discussing the war within society, it is the VMV which figures as VOV's counterpoint in terms of activating "outer" frameworks for the war's public discussion. In relation to the broader identity political context, the study expands the question of how the era of the Second World War is treated in Russia, and the potential limits of this discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines representations of war remembrance in the francophone Russian writer Andreï Makine's novel La terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme [The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme, 2003]. The novel portrays events and experiences of World War II from three temporal perspectives: that of the eponymous French pilot, who flies transports for the Soviets in the Alaska-Siberia air bridge during the war; that of the narrator as a child, who witnesses the construction of Stalingrad monuments and the emergence of the Soviet war cult in the mid-1960s; and that of the adult narrator, who searches for Dorme's remains in post-Soviet Russia and seeks to commemorate the nowforgotten pilot by writing about his life. Makine portrays official monuments and commemoration of the Battle of Stalingrad as attempts on the part of the Soviet state to manipulate the collective memory. By contrast, he depicts individual remembrance as a more authentic alternative to collective commemorative practices. This article interprets Makine's depiction of war remembrance against the background of the Soviet war cult, showing how the novel privileges individual over collective memory. It argues that Makine represents individual oral and written narratives in particular as an alternative to official histories and public commemoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Russian Constitution was adopted in 1993, many citizens have submitted complaints of perceived violations of their constitutional rights to the Russian Constitutional Court. The study analyzes final Court decisions on fifty-five complaints initiated by Russian veterans. Many of these cases related to veterans' access to social welfare benefits; the Court rejected most of the cases. Generally speaking, while veterans argued that they were entitled to particular rights as veterans, the Court denied that veterans deserved special rights that were above and beyond the rights of the individual citizen. However, the Court acknowledged the special status of World War II veterans, on the basis of their extraordinary sacrifices. The decisions show a gap between the veterans' perceptions of their rights and the interpretation of those rights. They also demonstrate that although the Court is formally a body for seeking judicial remedies, it is also a discursive arena in the debate over the Russian state's interpretation of the Soviet past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on the impact of gender on political attitudes has shown that women have more liberal attitudes than men do, both generally and in relation to specific policy areas. One area of an especially large gender gap is in attitudes about foreign policy and the use of force, where women are much less likely to support war and armed conflict. An exception to this gender gap is found in post-communist countries, where men and women often do not display significantly different political attitudes. Employing a variety of survey data on public opinion about the Chechen conflict in Russia, we investigate whether a modern gender gap has emerged in Russia, and the form that this gender gap has taken. We find strong, diverse evidence of a gender gap in Russia, with women expressing more dovish attitudes towards the conflict in Chechnya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current political histories of late imperial Russia seldom discuss Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918), the eldest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917), because she is considered to be politically insignificant. Nicholas's discussions with his ministers in the early 1900s regarding the possibility of Olga's succession in the absence of a direct male heir, the inclusion of the young Grand Duchess in the amended regency act of 1912, and the degree of importance attributed to her choice of husband reveal that the Emperor conceived a political role for his eldest daughter and considered her, at various times, to be a possible successor to the Russian throne. Nicholas II's attempts to unilaterally influence the line of succession after 1905 provide evidence of his unwillingness to work with the Duma regarding the governance of the imperial family. In an environment in which Nicholas II's actual intentions regarding the succession were open to conjecture, the foreign press constructed a popular narrative concerning Olga's political significance as a possible successor to her father, creating the conditions for the intense international interest regarding the fate of Nicholas and Alexandra's children that would be expressed after the murder of the imperial family in 1918. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over two decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia continues to be a society in transition where local and global values still tend to conflict with each other. This article focuses on value appeals in the advertising discourse of the contemporary Russian women's magazines Krest'ianka [Peasant Woman], Karavan istorii [Caravan of Stories] and Samaia [The Most]. Advertising appeals are analyzed from the perspective of individualism and collectivism. These are respectively associated with global and local value orientations. The distribution of appeals to individualism and collectivism in the magazines under review is linked to the definition of the values of the target audience of each magazine. In general, the magazines are designed, distributed, and consumed in the evolving socio-economic context of post-Soviet Russia. Since magazines significantly depend on advertising revenues, this article proposes that advertising messages have the potential to impact the discourse of the magazines, in particular, the construction of femininities in the magazine medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Russian literature and literary studies in the period between 1991 and 2011, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Topics include the position of writers in Russian society, against the background of government sponsored writers during the Soviet period; a discussion of possible reasons for the lack of official government censorship of literature, in contrast to the evident censorship of radio, television, and press in Russia; and recent trends and movements in Russian literature, including the popularity of prose fiction.

The article discusses ethnographic studies of Russia and Ukraine in the period from 1991 to 2011, after the fall of the Soviet Union, from an anthropological perspective. Topics include a discussion of the methodologies of the fields of ethnography and anthropology, and the role of the researcher in maintaining a conversation with the informant, or participant, while gathering research; the methodology and debates which came up as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union, and its particular methodologies of gaining ethnographic information; and the primary themes that have arisen in research since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The article discusses the historiography of Russia developed in North America in the post-Soviet period. Topics include the generations of scholarship in Russian historiography and the connections between the generations, with scholarly biographies, as well as anomalies; a discussion of the Bolshevik overthrow of the Tzarist government in 1917 and the consequences of the October Revolution; and the development of historiography as a field within the North American scholarship on post Soviet Russia.

The article discusses the Post-Soviet period, with a focus on the scholarship of folklore. Topics include background on Russian folklore, Russian studies of folklore, and folklore during and after the Soviet Period; Soviet censorship of Russian collections of folklore, such as D.N. Sadovnikov's "Russian Riddles," Afanas'ev's "Russian Secret Tales," and Nikolai Onchukov's "Northern Tales;" and background on folklorists and folklore collections which have come to light in the Post-Soviet period and have been reprinted and become available in Russia.

The article discusses post Communist Russia, with a focus on the transition to democracy, and the framework of transit studies. Topics include the unexpected results of the transition out of Communism, the models of post Communist states in Latin America and Southern Europe as inadequate for describing the changes in Russia, the other countries of the Former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe; and the search for a framework outside of comparative politics to describe the transition in Russia, and the directions in which Russia is moving.

This article focuses on the Russian Federation's foreign policy vis-à-vis Belarus and Ukraine during the presidencies of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. It addresses the question: Which specific factors influenced Russian foreign policy towards the aforementioned European states? The goals of the study are to illuminate these factors and to compare Russian foreign policy at the time of Yeltsin's administration with that during Putin's presidency. Russo-Ukrainian and Russo-Belarusian relations are analyzed using the method of structured focused comparison. The research examines presidential speeches, decision-makers' memoirs, decisions or the absence thereof, and official declarations of the Russian government towards Ukraine and Belarus, as well as official agreements and empirical reality that exemplify the implementation of Russia's foreign policy. The empirical analysis reveals that geopolitical considerations, threat perception, interest groups, and decision-makers' perception of the past influenced the formation of Russia's foreign policy. Perception of the past, however, is fundamental to the understanding of this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's return to Russia in 1994, twenty years after his exile from the Soviet Union, was regarded by many as one of the most symbolic events of the immediate post-Cold War era. Arguably the most famous dissident of the Soviet period was returning to his native land, where communism had at last disintegrated and given way to a transitional-democratic regime. However, despite receiving a prophet's welcome upon his arrival, Solzhenitsyn showed nothing but contempt for the Russian government's efforts to stabilize the country amid economic and political turmoil. Within eighteen months, Solzhenitsyn had squandered any moral sway he might have held, and had been reduced to an out-of-touch curmudgeon and object of satire amid the Russian populace. Ten years later, however, Solzhenitsyn's name and works had been given a new relevance and popular appeal, in light of a government-led effort to restructure his persona for a new generation of citizens. The long-term process through which the Russian government has accomplished this is the focus of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sentence of exile was a regular feature of the Russian revolutionary's underground career. In order to survive this punishment and continue their struggle against Tsarism, revolutionaries relied on help from their fellow exiles, their party, the Political Red Cross and, often, their families. Historians have rarely acknowledged the role of kin in supporting the revolutionary movement and very few studies have noted the attempts by families to mitigate the worst aspects of a sentence of exile. This article explores the ways in which spouses and siblings, parents and children obtained concessions from the Tsarist authorities regarding their loved ones' sentences of exile, helped off-set the poverty to which many exiles were reduced, and, above all, combated the sense of loneliness and depression to which those in exile were exposed. This article argues that such familial support had a collective and positive impact on revolutionaries' experience of exile. More broadly it provides an illuminating case study of the blurred space between public and private which the revolutionary occupied and highlights the way in which the movement depended on help from sympathizers and family members in order to function effectively on a daily basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article constitutes an attempt, previously not undertaken in the critical literature, to collate all the known information concerning Nikolai Gogol''s work in 1833-1834 on a history of Ukraine, and, based on this evidence, to formulate a reasoned conclusion as to how much of the history he might have completed beyond what purports to be the introductory chapter, initially published under the title "Fragment from a History of Little Russia" and later as "A Glance at the Composition of Little Russia." Gogol''s original plan was to write a history of Ukraine from the time southern Rus' separated from the northern as a consequence of the conquest of Kyiv by the Mongols in 1240 and later the absorption of Kyivan Rus' by Lithuania in the mid-14th century. The "Fragment" is almost certainly the only part of it, as per this plan, ever written, and is itself probably unfinished, because the writer broke off work on it when he redesigned the history, intending now to begin with the early history of the Eastern Slavs and the founding of the Kyivan state. A two-page prose fragment found among what is represented in the 1937-1952 Academy edition of Gogol''s complete collected works as the writer's notes on Russian history, represents the new beginning, but this breaks off as well, and what would have constituted its continuation is still in the form of an outline and notes, so that, logically, no continuation of either beginning can be expected to surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the University of Calgary Gorbachev Foundation Public Policy Project (UCGF99) as a case study for exploring the challenges of international participation in promoting reform of the content and context of public policy in postcommunist Russia. Drawing on evidence from a series of interviews with Russian and Canadian participants, it focuses on how cultural and power issues played out in UCGF99's work. Because public policy stands at the juncture between state and society, public policy reform is an ideal rubric for exploring how values accompany aid and the way that the culture of the receiving society shapes the implementation of that aid. The interviews reveal an inherent tension between the ideal of egalitarian co-operation and the reality that the work done by the partnership was dedicated, ultimately, to the "reform" of one side by the other. They also highlight the extent to which reform is a process of translation: as concepts and international models make the transition to another society, their own cultural specificity becomes apparent, as does the challenge of translating them in a manner meaningful to the society undergoing "transition." This article focuses on two related questions of translation: how issues of language, culture and power played out in the "consultant" structure of UCGF99 partnerships, and the concrete challenges of transforming Russian political culture using Canadian models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, as president of the Group of Eight (G8), Russia intended to increase its global status, respond to foreign criticism about its democratic credentials, and advance key policy positions. In determining whether these goals were met, the author examines six important issues that Russia's G8 presidency covered, including its agenda items (global energy security, infectious diseases, and education), nuclear nonproliferation, counter-terrorism, and the crisis in the Middle East. Informed by international socialization theory, the author finds that the G8 presidency gave Russia a high-profile platform on which to assert its national interests and sovereignty. President Vladimir Putin showcased Russia's strengths in various ways, ranging from symbolic images of its renewed grandeur to demonstrations of its independent policy line on energy security and rhetoric about its democratizing the G8 decision-making process. He also benefited from the fact that other G8 leaders did not publicly press him on issues related to Russia's authoritarian backsliding. However, Russia's achievements as G8 president were soon overshadowed by worsening relations with the United States and the European Union; by further restrictions on civil society; and by high-profile assassinations. The behaviour of Russian officials during 2006 indicates that international socialization was not taking place in any meaningful way beyond a display of diplomatic code (e.g., rhetoric on consensus-building). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the police reports on the peasants during the early years of the New Economic Policy as the new Soviet state attempted to establish a working relationship with rural Russia through a variety of organizations, chief among these the police. As the government sought to determine the meaning of the NEP, the police in rural Russia attempted to provide the central authorities with accurate information on economic, social, and political conditions in the countryside and to establish a positive relationship with the peasantry. In the process, the police came to understand the peasantry well and demonstrated a complex appreciation of the realities of rural Russia rather than a simple proto-Stalinist worldview. Utilizing the data from the police, the Bolshevik regime in the period to Lenin's death also demonstrated some willingness to accept a deal with the peasantry and moderate its approach - a flexibility reflected in its change from confiscation to razverstka, and again from razverstka to a single tax, and then even to modify the tax levy to reflect peasant constructs of what was "right" to pay. This flexibility emerged in large measure because the police were returning to an earlier view of the peasants as rational beings, rather than incorrigible irrational enemies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natalia Gorbanevskaia is primarily known as a poet and leading human rights activist, as well as for her role as author and editor at Kontinent and Russkaia mysl'. One important and substantial aspect of her life that is not well known outside of limited circles is the formative influence of Polish culture and thought on her as well as her extensive contribution to Polish culture and its dispersion, and the promotion of mutual understanding between Poles and Russians. This article traces this relationship and situates it within the context of a broader pattern of Polish influence on Russian culture beginning in the mid-1950s as well as connecting Gorbanevskaia to the seminal figure of Giedroyc, both directly and by virtue of shared concerns and interests. The period beginning with her emigration to Paris in 1976 sees her fully committed to expanding access for Russians, in exile and at home, to cultural, political, social and other texts and information about Poland. Chronologically, the nominal limits of this narrative are the popular interest journal PoI'sha which had a huge appeal for many Soviets beginning from 1956, and the journal Novaia PoI'sha of which she is a member of the editorial board, and which has been published in Russian in Warsaw since 1999 with the goal of establishing thoughtful dialogue between Poles and Russians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented concerning the greatness of Vladimir Solov'ëv. The author argues that Solov'ëv's reputation as Russia's greatest philosopher rests on the essential humanism of his core concept, Godmanhood. It notes Solov'ëv's three main elements of humanism including human autonomy, dignity and perfectibility. An overview the written books related to the matter is also offered.

A literary criticism of the book "Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism," by Edyta M. Bojanowska is presented. According to the article, the dominant image of Gogol today was that he is being considered as the "Great Russian Writer". However, what most people does not know is that Gogol was actually a Ukrainian. Furthermore, he also has strong sympathies to Ukrainians. In the book, the author intelligently and diplomatically weakens the Russiocentric view of Gogol.

A literary criticism of the book "Jagdwörterbuch Russisch-Deutsch" by Irmgard Lorenz is presented. According to the article, one sixth of the Earth's land surface was used to be under the control of Tsarist Russia and later, the Soviet Union, spanning from the arctic down to the tropics. The book outlines a brief history of Russian hunting customs. It also has a four page introduction made by the author.

This article examines popular movements in Pskov during the last years of the Time of Troubles. It argues that, after the rebellion of 1608, the city commune separated from the Muscovite state and re-established archaic forms of popular governance, which coexisted with traditional bureaucratic institutions. The commune administered important legal and political affairs, and was responsible for making decisions such as which side to support in the civil war. Despite continuous tension among the Pskovian citizens, the commune itself proved to be a sustainable and viable corporation. For several years, it successfully preserved the city's independent status. The constant external threat, however, compelled the Pskovians to return under the patronage of the Muscovite authorities and to renounce their autonomy. From the long perspective, the self-governing city was unable to compete with powerful sovereign states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are still many unanswered questions about the biography of Simeon Polotskii, a Belarusan monk who became a prominent figure in the cultural process of Muscovite Russia in the years 1660-1670. This article presents some new data culled from Simeon's notes and letters, which were preserved in his draft manuscripts. They add to our knowledge of his life and provide more precise information about previously known issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bibliography is presented of books received by the journal including "The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation" by Andrew Wilson, "Commemorating Pushkin: Russia's Myth of a National Poet" by Stephanie Sandler, and "The Russian Memoir: History and Literature" edited by Beth Holmgren.

The article introduces the current issue of the journal, focusing on Slavic Studies since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, with topics including the causes of the fall, Russian foreign policy towards Ukraine and Belarus after 1991, and the moral role of the artist or writer in Ukraine and Russia.

A bibliography on the subject of Slavonic studies is presented which includes the books "Steller's History of Kamchatka: Collected Information Concerning the History of Kamchatka, Its Peoples, Their Manners, Names, Lifestyles, and Various Customary Practices," written by Georg Steller, translated by Margritt Engel and Karen Willmore, "Grewingk's Geology of Alaska and the Northwest Coast of America: Contributions Toward Knowledge of the Orographic and Geognostic Condition of the Northwest Coast of America, With the Adjacent Islands," written by Constantine Grewingk, edited by Marvin W. Falk, and translated by Fritz Jaensch, and "Nabokov at Cornell," edited by Gavriel Shapiro.

The article presents a list of books received including "Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union," by Geoffrey Hosking, "Beyond the Empire: Images of Russia in the Eurasian Cultural Context," edited by Tetsuo Mochizuki, and "A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia During World War I," by Peter Gatrell.