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The article presents a revisionist interpretation of the reforms in the late Soviet Union, focusing on the strong affinities between the perestroika and China's reform and opening-up. The article draws on social constructivism, poststructuralism, and post-Marxism and formulates an original typology of Soviet political discourses as the main method. Discourse analysis reveals that the implementation of the Chinese reform model in the Soviet Union was possible in discursive terms. Politico-economic analysis shows that the reform of Soviet socialism, which began in 1983 before Gorbachev's perestroika, coincided largely with the parallel process in China. The author argues that the neo-Leninist perestroika was modelled on Dengism until the hegemony of this discourse was replaced by liberal socialism in 1988. Nevertheless, neo-Leninism remained relevant up to August 1991 when the failure of the State Committee on the State of Emergency frustrated the prospects for socialism in the country. The article concludes that the dismissal of Dengism by Soviet leaders was one of the principal causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This historical experience provides the Communist Party of China with invaluable lessons and shows the crucial importance of the Four Cardinal Principles for reform and opening-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to demonstrate that post-Soviet Russian prose from 1991--2000 contains a critique of totalitarianism manifested as much on the level of literary problematics as on the art of the narrative itself. The first part of the study synthesizes the most important themes in post-Soviet Russian literature, among which resentment of the trauma caused by communism stands out. Among the various literary movements, postmodernism played a decisive role by adopting an aggressive stylistic stance in the radical spirit of the avantgarde whose aesthetic it continued. The second part of the study analyzes one of the most renowned novels of the period in order to depict a significant anti-totalitarian vision, Underground, or a Hero of Our Time (1998) by Vladimir Makanin. In addition to the critique of totalitarianism, Makanin's novel offers a critical reflection on post-Soviet reality seen as an effect of the trauma of communism. The sombre social mural created by Makanin -- emphasizing at least three topoi: the underground, the obshhaga 'communal apartment block', and the psychiatric hospital -- casts a bleak shadow over the recent past, from the paternalistic communist state to the chaotic transitional period of Perestroika, all depicted against a controversial ideological, economic and political landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the 'New Thinking' (NT) marked a radical departure from the foreign-policy traditions adhered to by Soviet leaders since the Bolshevik Revolution. Launched by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, his policy approach of NT changed the nature of East-West relations paving the way for the end of the Cold War. A lesser known facet of NT was the perestroika (restructuring) of Soviet foreign policy – especially the devolution of decision-making from the centre to the union republics. It first intended to release the potential of the Soviet people and improve the 'economic mechanism', but soon it became a communist survival strategy in the context of glasnost and demokratizatsiya that had unleashed the centrifugal forces of nationalism. Indeed, NT proved to be a great gamble: by empowering the republics to conduct their own foreign affairs, it allowed national movements to bring their claims to international fora which in turn undermined the legitimacy of the regime. In this vein, NT not only played a pivotal role in defusing East-West antagonism, but ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union – with all its wider implications for the Baltic arena, Northern Europe, and the world at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Russian films depicting the 1990s, the theme of emigration emerged as an escape from the unstable, uncertain, and unfamiliar political, social, and economic conditions of transition. Western destinations, especially California, represented an idealised alternative to life in transitional, unpredictable Russia. Through examination of two films, one from 1995, Dmitrii Astrakhan's Everything Will Be Fine, and one from 2020, Alexander Molochnikov's Tell Her, it is possible to trace shifting ideologies around emigration, the US-Russia relationship, and Russians' perceptions of the US and California, in particular. Whereas Astrakhan reveals flaws in the Russian system as a rationale for emigration, conforming to popular culture of the 1990s, Molochnikov sees emigration to the US as a less viable option, aligning with politically-motivated anti-Western ideologies, which reflects a shift in views on emigration from the 1990s to the present. This interdisciplinary essay suggests that even though emigration was increased and viewed popularly in the 1990s, when emigration out of Russia soared into the millions, more recently, this view has fallen out of favour, owing to widespread Kremlin ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the fate of the generation that peaked between the 1970s and 1990s, this article discusses the possibility of linking times of disintegration even when the machine of a powerful and seemingly eternal empire was working at "rupturing" them. The author highlights the features of the "philosophical generation" of the last third of the twentieth century in the context of his own personal experience, the cultural characteristics of the late Soviet era, the functioning of cultural institutions, and dialogue and interaction between generations. He sees a characteristic feature of this generation as the dominance of history of philosophy, under which auspices the process of comprehending the acute problems of our own times often took place. The article argues that intergenerational dialogue can take place even in conditions created by state ideological policy for purposefully isolating individuals and groups both from each other and from the contemporary international community. Special attention is devoted to the phenomenon of "culturology," a science that was, on the one hand, an artificial product of "perestroika," but on the other hand, the result of productive attempts to overcome our separation from global culture, to integrate the human knowledge accumulated in previous eras into a kind of holistic understanding. The mirror of culturology reflected entire dynamics of generations at the end of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part of a special issue devoted to the centenary of the Film Institute VGIK, this article considers the significant role that the VGIK played in nurturing the production networks responsible for the vast majority of rock-music-themed films in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. When viewed from the perspective of academic preparation, mentorship and film production opportunities for aspiring filmmakers, VGIK begins to resemble a veritable 'film school of rock' in its enduring support of student and faculty projects that focus on underground rock-and-roll culture. Drawing on coursework films and production histories, as well as the thematic and stylistic profiles of both staff and student film-makers, this article addresses the role and legacy of popular music in shaping the curricular practices and interpersonal networks at Russia's most prestigious film school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue provides a timely reflection on the Russian media system, which is currently at a crossroads. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of previous theorisations of the post-Soviet Russian media and suggest that they seemingly go in waves. The first wave, to our mind, is linked to the analysis of the perestroika's 'Glasnost' and the dramatic shifts following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This wave is followed by an attempt to reflect on the nationwide processes of media around the mid-2000s. The third wave coincides with the regulatory changes in 2010s and is informed by the pronounced technological changes affecting media industries and growing Internet penetration in the country. This special issue potentially feeds into a new wave of conceptualisation, as it revisits previous assertions of the inherent duality of the Russian media system. The five articles contributing to this special issue in one way or another argue that this dualism constitute the characteristic enduring nature of the Russia media. The authors reflect on the applicability of existing media theories to Russian context as well as offer an up-to-date account of diverse journalist practices, regional differences and converging media sub-systems in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how the conversion process in the Soviet economy has expanded the military sector's influence and put it in a position to determine the fate of perestroika. The adoption of reform measures has complicated the conversion process and has made the planning of conversion more controversial than it would have been otherwise. An early example is a venture linking an Italian company with two Soviet military-space facilities to develop equipment for the food industry and other enterprises based on space-age composite materials. Another issue is how conversion should be distributed--partially among many enterprises, or concentrated at a small number of facilities which would be wholly or substantially freed from military work. Although this may prevent full conversion to specialized civilian work, it keeps open the option of increased military production in case of necessity, as one of the program's authors has confirmed.

Report that how Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev manages the effects of wrenching economic and political reform in Eastern Europe will affect not only the bloc but East-West relations as well. Process of change; Reform.

Discusses the effect of an article entitled `The Cunning Figure' which appeared in the Soviet literary-political journal `Novy mir,' written by Vasili Seliunin and Girsh (Grigori) Itsikovich Khanin which questioned the quality and reliability of the economic statistics that are at the very foundation of the Soviet centrally planned economy. Debate on nature and extent of the achievements of Soviet socialism; Possible effect of Gorbachev's plan of economic restructuring.

Proposes that a government-sponsored corps of retired United States entrepreneurs (similar to the International Executive Service Corps) could aid the Soviet Union in its quest for economic reform under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Looks at Gorbachev's proposed reforms. Why the West has a stake in Russian economic reform; Russia's bureaucracy.

Drawing from the central notion in Russian culture of resurrection, and from Hannah Arendt's concept of political 'lost treasures', this article analyses initiatives for democratisation during the Soviet Thaw (1956-1964) and perestroika (1985-1991); and current attempts to recall the legacy of medieval Pskov and Novgorod's republican institutions. Retrieving memories of civic action matters intellectually and politically because it roots Russian democratisation in alternative national traditions, which, curiously, both Russian democratic activists and Putin supporters dismiss today. The empirical data come from interviews, ethnographic observations, and studies on Russian/Soviet politics and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the early reforms of perestroika (1985-1989) that aimed to overcome the perceived moral crisis of Soviet society. A close study of the public debates of that time reveals three conflicting perspectives on morality. By situating these debates in the wider context of Soviet and Western intellectual history, this article argues that the Soviet liberal project was part of a broader phenomenon, namely, the apogee of political Romanticism in the USSR. This conclusion, in turn, sheds light on the specificities of the Soviet liberal moral project, which inspired Gorbachev's reform strategy from 1987 onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on Russian intelligentsia, its role in societal change and its diminishing value in the country. Topics discussed include the authoritarianism of the Russian president Vladimir Putin; the mass culture of urban consumers in the country; and the reforms by Russian president Boris Yeltsin in the country. Also mentioned is the fall of communism and the Soviet Union.

The article offers information on the interrelationship between communication, democracy and intelligentsia in Russia and its impact on society. Topics discussed include Gorbachev's reform of Soviet society; the forms of public discourse isolated by philosopher Jürgen Habermas; and the criticism faced by intellectuals trying to challenge the normative assumptions of Russian society. Also mentioned is the encouragement of self-censorship by ultranationalists.

The article discusses how Russian intelligentsia, a status class of educated people that guide, and lead in shaping the culture and politics of society, affected the society in 21st century. Topics discussed include postmodern role of Russian intellectuals and political activists; role of intelligentsia in unification of society; ways in which Soviet intelligentsia guaranteed for itself a higher quality of life; and contribution of intelligentsia.

The article explores the history of Russian intelligentsia, a status class of educated people engaged in the complex mental labours that guide, and lead in shaping the culture and politics of society. Topics discussed include Russian intellectuals and political activists' resemblance to Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman consul and public intellectual, who ran into political headwinds; governance of Russian president Vladimir Putin; and views of movie-maker Andrei Konchalovsky on the Putin.

The article explores the history of Russian intelligentsia, a status class of educated people engaged in the complex mental labours that guide, and lead in shaping the culture and politics of society. Topics discussed include Russian intellectuals and political activists' resemblance to Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman consul and public intellectual, who ran into political headwinds; governance of Russian president Vladimir Putin; and views of movie-maker Andrei Konchalovsky on the Putin.

Clothes can cover, hide and clothe, but they can also denude, unveil and demonstrate. This is especially true of clothes created in protest, in negation of something—that is, of alternative fashion. A nearly global phenomenon, alternative fashion is closely connected with radical social groups and practices, including artistic ones. By opposing the establishment and declaring its conventions and rules false, alternative fashion has an ambition to speak on behalf of the truth. In the former Soviet Union, rock musicians, hippies, punks and other subcultures were deeply marginal, and their attire shocked the general public. Dressed performances of alternative fashion and lifestyle became possible only in the mid-1980s, when Gorbachev’s Perestroika began. They flourished in post-Soviet Russia for about a decade before transforming themselves in either popular entertainment for the rich or a new mythology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Hungarian feature films of the years around the regime change there often occur the motifs of the journey to western Europe, migration to the West, work and career in the West. In this motion, the concept of the ‘West’ is relativized; it is articulated not geographically but as the direction of social movement, and in this sense Hungary can also stand for the ‘West’. Thus, in the years around the regime change and especially at the beginning of the post-Soviet period, (Western) Europe is conceptualized as the possible scene of liberation from the existence experienced as colonization. The motif, however, becomes truly remarkable not because of its ‘logical’ emergence around the regime change, but rather due to its survival in the works of young film directors starting their career at the turn of the millennium, then of the youngest generation of contemporary film directors. It no longer describes the physical and political exit/liberation from Soviet colonization, but the difficulty, what is more, impossibility of it, the impact of the 40-year totalitarian past upon the present. These films show that ‘Europeanization’ is superseded by ‘de-Europeanization’ and self-colonization takes the place of colonization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws attention to issues about the institutional matrices theory (IMT) as perceived by and raised in the article by F. Gregory Hayden. To clarify the “controversial” points, I structure my response narrative along two lines. First, I present the prehistory of IMT, or X- and Y- theory, including earlier work by scientists related to the concept of institutional matrix. I connect the development of the actual IMT with the period of “perestroika” and the associated market experiments and reforms in Russia and Eastern European countries. One could see that the effects of market reforms in Russia were different in comparison with other countries in economic transition. I show that the institutional approach was accepted as more relevant to understanding the unexpected results in Russian society. I present IMT as a development of the ideas of Karl Polanyi and Douglas North to answer the challenges of explaining the real social and economic processes in Russia, as well as its wider application to a broader range of economic and social situations in different countries. Second, I then present the main IMT theses, giving special attention to the issues as perceived and raised by Hayden. In conclusion, I suggest the possibility of a joint project that combines IMT consideration and the social fabric matrix (SFM) concept of F. Gregory Hayden. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article traces the evolution of land protection in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. The Pamirs form the “Roof of the World,” where the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Tian Shan, and Kunlun Shan ranges converge. Field and archival research identified (1) the origin and diffusion of parks and protected areas across the globe, (2) the biophysical properties of the Pamir Mountains that inspired the conservation efforts, (3) the sequence of land protection from national park to supranational World Heritage recognition, and (4) the characteristics of the Pamir Mountains that justify UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Stalin forcefully depopulated these highlands in the 1930s. Tense Soviet–Sino relations in the 1960s and the prolonged Soviet–Afghan war further restricted human movements. When Gorbachev'sperestroikaallowed return migration in the mid-1980s, Tajik farmers and Kirghiz pastoralists resettled a landscape of thriving plants and wildlife. Concurrently, a nascent coalition of citizen scientists and government officials began advocating for a park. In 1992 the government established the Tajik National Park to protect environmental and sacred sites, promote traditional economic activity, and develop tourism. The antecedent Soviet collapse, civil war, economic upheaval, and renewed conflict in Afghanistan, however, complicated land protection. In 2013, UNESCO designated the Tajik National Park as a World Heritage Site. Establishing a Biosphere Reserve is the next step to promoting transboundary conservation with the adjacent protected areas in China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The potential reserve size, terrain, and demographic trajectory are consistent with the Man and the Biosphere model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germans from the former Soviet Union have been migrating to Germany with renewed impetus since 1988. What has become of these migrants, almost 20 years after their arrival? Has policy been pivotal or marginal in shaping their mobility and settlement? In which manner have first generation migrants acculturated and how successfully have they accessed the labour market? Addressing a decade of scarce research outputs, this article takes stock in 2015, using in-depth ethnographic and interview data collected between 2006 and 2012, parallel to a study on co-ethnic returnees in Greece. Exploring these migrants’ specific integration scenario, it argues that challenges endure particularly in acculturation and employment. The tenacity of integration problems can be found in a complex interplay of policy rhetoric and expectations, socialisation, cultural difference and structural impediments. As a result, the first generation is still trying to find its feet in Germany, and increasingly back in the FSU. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses the rise of social unrest in the Tajik SSR in 1990–1991 from the perspective of the republic’s place within the broader Soviet economy and the collapse of that economy over the course of perestroika (1985–1991). Countering standard narratives of glasnost, democratization and nationalism in Tajikistan, it demonstrates that a close reading of the historical record points to sharp economic downturn as the most plausible immediate cause of the social disorder that came to engulf the Tajik SSR in the final years of the USSR and led to the Tajik Civil War of the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Olga Maeots discusses a number of recent works for children and young adults, looking especially at the changes in positive behavior compared to Soviet classics. The authors she treats include Daria Wilke, Irina Zartaiskaia, Iulia Kuznetsova, Ekaterina Murashova, Nikolai Nazarkin and Ilga Ponornitskaia. Maeots finds a continuing thread of influence from classic Soviet author Arkadii Gaidar, who was criticized in the period of perestroika but whose works are still beloved by children and appreciated by adults, including specialists in children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By circumstances of history The Popular Movement of Ukraine, more frequently referred to simply as Rukh, became a critical part of the effort to consolidate Ukraine's early independence. A broad, grassroots coalition established in 1989 to support Gorbachev's policies to revitalize Soviet society, Rukh's original appeal called for respect and friendship among ethnic and national groups and the development of deep understanding between them, values that guided the work of Rukh's Council of Nationalities. This account focuses particular attention on the Council's involvement with the nascent Jewish revival in Ukraine. The original strength of Rukh was its emphasis on inclusion. However, competing interests intervened and Rukh was transformed from a popular coalition into a center-right political party. By 1993, the Council of Nationalities had ceased to exit. This firsthand account by the former chair of the Council of Nationalities recounts the interplay from 1989 to 1993 between the aspirations of Rukh, its Council of Nationalities, the Jewish community, the rapidly developing events that led to Ukraine's independence and their immediate aftermath for Rukh and the Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens to feminism in the university is parallel to what happens to feminism in other venues under economic restructuring: while the impoverished nation is forced to cut social services and thereby send women back to the hierarchy of the family, the academy likewise reduces its footprint in interdisciplinary structures and contains academic feminists back to the hierarchy of departments and disciplines. When the family and the department become powerful arbiters of cultural values, women and feminist academics by and large suffer: they either accept a diminished role or are pushed to compete in a system they recognize as antithetical to the foundational values of feminist priorities of social justice. Collaborative work to nurture diversity and interdisciplinarity does not register as individual accomplishment. This paper considers the necessity of this type of academic work to further the vision of a society committed to the collective values espoused by feminism and other areas in social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that, like the liberalising “Great Reforms” of Russia in the mid-19th century, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika of the late 20th century was propelled as much by reformist intellectuals' Europe-inspired visions of a more humane society as it was by military-economic crisis. Over the post-Stalin decades, a new policy-academic elite – economists, philosophers, scientists and writers – viewed in the apparent success of East European reforms a model of “socialism with a human face” for their country's eventual reintegration into a “common European home.” Yet their understanding of European integration was too superficial, and their appreciation of communist hard-liners' resistance too belated, to carry their reforms to successful completion. This article also holds that Russian reformers' naiveté was compounded by Western leaders' selfishness and short-sightedness. The latter clung to Cold War beliefs that the Soviet system could not produce a genuine reformist movement. When Gorbachev came to power, his perestroika was considered merely a “ruse,” its ideas of “new thinking” ridiculed, and ultimately only the “shock therapy” of Boris Yeltsin merited significant Western aid despite its broad incompetence and vast corruption. The combined Western-Russian failures in 1990s efforts toward rapid marketisation and integration proved even more damaging than those of the 1980s due to their broad discrediting of Western liberal democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper distinguishes between the (ontological) creation, (historical) emergence and (legal) ‘making’ of religion. Many religions claim plausibility by invoking long chains of (invented) traditions, while some post-modern religions positively affirm their invented character. The case of Zoroastrianism in contemporary Russia is discussed as an example of a cross-cultural ‘appropriation’ of religion, rather than a transfer of an extant religion through, for example, migration. This means that inventors, recipients and practitioners mimetically reconstruct ‘Zoroastrianism’, by adapting it to the (new) legal framework that regulates religion in Russia. Once Zoroastrianism had affirmed its presence in Russia, Zoroastrians from other parts of the world established contacts. In the course of events, Russian Zoroastrianism diversified into different tendencies (esoteric, charismatic and nativistic vs modernistic, Internet-based and international). In addition to functioning as a separate religion, Zoroastrianism in Russia has become part of Neopagan and New Age complexes and is appropriated inter-discursively in the academy, the mass media and in different genres of fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over fifty years, successive waves of critique have underscored that the apolitical character of much of political science research betrays the founding mission of the discipline to have science serve democracy. The Caucus for a New Political Science was originally based on such a critique, and the perestroika movement in the discipline included a call for more problem-driven as opposed to theory- or method-driven work that would better connect political science research to ongoing political struggles. In recent years, movements for a public sociology and public anthropology as well as dissonant movements in economics and related fields have added to the insistence that social science research was too often disconnected from the real world. Phronetic social science has emerged out of the ferment for change in the social sciences, starting with the much-debated book by Bent Flyvbjerg,Making Social Science Matter(Cambridge, 2001). Flyvbjerg critiqued the social sciences for mimicking the natural sciences, while proposing an alternative approach that focuses research on helping people address the problems they are facing. Today, phronetic social science goes beyond the call for an alternative approach to social inquiry and its growing adherents are providing evidence that this alternative approach to doing research can enrich the social sciences by more effectively connecting research to efforts to address real world problems as people experience them. This article provides a genealogy of efforts to connect political science to politics, a review of the major critiques of mainstream research, an explication of the rationale for more problem-driven, mixed-methods research, a specification of the key principles of the phronetic approach, and examples of its application in the public realm. The article concludes with implications for realizing a more political political science by way of taking a phronetic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her 1988 film Vlast' Solovetskaia/Solovki Power Russian documentarian Marina Goldovskaya pushes the changing limits of the permissible in the Soviet Union during perestroika. Solovki Power, a glasnost-era memory vehicle, introduces a new counter-narrative into Soviet culture and collective memory. The multi-voiced narrative is constructed not only by the memories of those who experienced the camp, including the intelligentsia, women, prison guards and members of the working class, but also by the strong presence of the film-maker and the narrator. Through this film, Goldovskaya attempts to rewrite the canonical history and official ideologies of the Soviet past, thereby deconstructing the Soviet political mythology. Unlike many re-evaluations of Stalinism from the Soviet period, Goldovskaya uses Solovki as a metaphor for a systemic critique of the Soviet Union. Her criticism of the Gulag state, however, leaves intact the memory of Lenin, the Party and the October Revolution. Solovki Power also represents a shift that was becoming increasingly prevalent during the perestroika-era: a change from the idea that the state has authorial control over the content of documentary films, with its ability to tightly control the film-making process from script to screening, to the director as the implied author of the film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic restructuring has led to the emergence of serious skill gaps in many transition economies. Such changes have been especially pronounced in the countries of the Western Balkans due to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the subsequent reorientation of previous patterns of economic activity. Structural unemployment has increased to high levels, yet the education and training systems have failed to adapt to the needs for new skills in service sectors and sectors subject to global technological change. This article investigates the use of various skills anticipation methods to inform education and training policy in the region. It argues that the information on skill gaps gathered through these methods are not being used effectively to address skill mismatch, and that existing supply-led matching policies have failed to meet the challenge of high levels of structural unemployment. An alternative demand-led approach is identified, which relies on more decentralized methods to place effective power and influence in the hands of users, whether employers, employees, job-seekers or discouraged workers. It is suggested that this would provide a more appropriate model for the improvement of workforce skills in the Western Balkan countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on the topic of former Soviet Union premier Mikhail Gorbachev and the era of perestroika in the late 20th century.

When Gorbachev came to power he inherited not simply a system in crisis, but a structure of symbols that was embedded within the broader political system and which was also in crisis. Given the ideocratic nature of the Soviet system, any change to that system would require symbolic change as well. This essay charts how Gorbachev sought to come to grips with this problem, investing some symbols with new meaning while rejecting others. It shows how ultimately he was unable to produce a new, coherent narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author assesses the prospects of a "second perestroika" based on his interpretation of modern Russian history in terms of the concepts of revolution and counterrevolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A political scientist examines the Medvedev presidency, asking whether a significant liberalization occurred between 2008 and spring 2012, the advent of Putin's return to the Kremlin. Drawing on the media and the academic literature, the article explores the proposition that that liberalization sparked many of the processes associated in the political science literature with both revolutionary and more transitional modes of regime transformation, including some initial regime transition pact-making. This pact-making and the maturity that both regime and opposition have so far exhibited are analyzed in terms of prospects for a peaceful mode of regime transformation that produces a democratic outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to predominantly materialist accounts of the impact and implications of rising powers in shaping the global order, the present study explores how ideas related to South-South solidarity formed the interests and directed the collective actions of emerging states. It specifically looks at attempts by India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), through their trilateral development assistance mechanism, the IBSA Fund, to challenge traditional normative frameworks of best behaviour associated to Western/liberal development models. I argue that contemporary South-South initiatives in general and the India, Brazil and South Africa partnership in particular, are promoting changes in the current political-normative configuration of international relations. Unlike South-South coalitions of the early post-colonial era, such as the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) and the G77, when newly independent states in Africa and Asia had moral leverage but were economically weak, leading Southern states have achieved economic gains that have significantly raised their normative pull. However, their actual impact cannot be fully understood detached from the historical process by which Southern norms were first created and that later guided the foreign policy agendas of these emerging powers. This article shows the resilience of perceptions, values and ideas, which have been translated into conceptions of ‘distributive justice’ promoted by Southern powers through initiatives such as IBSA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1985, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachov initiated the perestroika, which was meant to liberalize the country's centrally planned economy and strictly controlled society. However, as often happens with attempts to liberalize, there soon comes a borderline that the initiator of liberalization had not expected to meet or intended to cross, but by then it is usually too late to stop. The series of reforms introduced went out of Gorbachov's control and only gave rise to strong nationalist movements in the Soviet Republics. This essay deals with the roots of nationalism in South Caucasus (Transcaucasia) in the last years of perestroika in the Soviet Union and the role of ethnic conflicts in shaking the state shortly before its dissolution in 1991. Parallels are drawn between the Baltic and the Transcaucasian nationalist movements to examine common features as well as differences within the framework of a unified Soviet state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper defines historical backwardness in transition, examines its impact on diversely created market structures in non-Baltic states of the Former Soviet Union, and offers a refined taxonomy of their differing transition experiences. The study argues that in contrast to the neoliberal viewpoint of mainstream discourse, the evolutionary-institutionalist (social power) approach to market construction is a more appropriate framework for assessing alternatives to the growth of authoritarianism in the region. The paper reassesses the constructivist policies of Gorbachev's perestroika from the perspective of institutionalist evolutionism and asserts that these policies still constitute a viable strategy for democratic advancement in authoritarian transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural policy in Russia changed significantly in less than 30 years, beginning with the Soviet regime and passing through a transition period until the present day. State funding and control, new forms of cultural institutions, fundraising, and profitable activities have undergone a significant transformation which is reflected by changes in cultural consumption. Museum attendance decreased considerably during this time despite the rising number of museums. This paper analyzes changes in museum attendance in Russia from 1980 to 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article argues that post-Soviet cinematic representations of the Soviet past are inherently contradictory. Starting from chernukha cinema of Perestroika period, the classical cinematic operation of disavowal acquires specific historical articulation and becomes instrumental in sustaining 'sutured belief' about Soviet reality - an effective mode of conceptualizing the Soviet past in the conditions of the traumatic symbolic havoc of post-Soviet Russia. The article outlines the general conditions of spectatorial belief in the truth of cinematic representation and addresses the peculiar vicissitudes of this belief in the implied spectators of the late Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. The attention to the subconscious mechanisms brought forward by the cinematic medium situates Russian thinking about its history on the level of the primary processes and helps explain its imperviousness to rational contestations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The course of Russia's history, and the continual reconceptualization of it, are intricately linked to Russians' sense of time, identity, and place in the world. Sociological research data are used to uncover these connections, and to look at their political and cultural implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the transformation of Central and and Eastern European governments from Communism to democracy during the collapse of the Soviet Union, with emphasis given to developments in Poland. The author is largely concerned with teleological aspects of this transformation, exploring whether or not democracy was ever the ultimate goal of Polish Communism, as was argued by the country's Communist leadership. The history of the Polish anti-communist Solidarity movement, largely led by the Polish Catholic Church, is examined, as is Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, or restructuring, political platform. The democratization process in various other Eastern European countries is also analyzed.

The article offers the author's insights related to socialism in Russia. Topics include the history of socialism in Soviet Union which began during the perestroika and glasnost, the role of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the country's ideology, and the defeat of the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) in the early 1990s which result to certain changes in the society.

This paper adopts a system of professions perspective from the sociology of work to assess efforts by Russian regional journalists to redefine the purposes and standards of journalism in an increasingly constraining political and economic environment. Data from interviews and observations at four newspapers in a central Russian province reveal that journalists at these papers have responded to pressures in varied ways, suggesting fragmentation in the occupation. Journalists who came of age during perestroika now avoid public issue reporting, but they seek to maintain jurisdiction over journalistic work by serving as “in-house communicators” for officials, by advising readers on everyday individual needs, and by focusing on literary writing or moral education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a survey of self-immolation of women in Tajik society and an analysis of its causes, comparing and contrasting data from the periods of perestroika, the civil war, and the post-reform era in Tajikistan. The causes of this form of attempted suicide include the low status of women, lack of women's rights, and extreme socioeconomic and religious pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tumultuous change—or perestroika—after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 opened the way for a wide-ranging debate on the most basic aspects of defense, and even of the country's very identity, including the age-old dilemma of whether the USSR/Russia is at heart a seapower or a landpower. The debate—which swirled around issues such as the country's geography, national interests, security threats, foreign policy, history, and the economy—highlighted the difficulty of balancing the country's orientation in these two basic realms. In its aftermath, the Navy underwent significant reductions in construction, training, and deployments. However, given the likely reassertion of Russian military activity in future years, these earlier arguments can provide a guidepost to a likely revived, albeit updated, debate by proponents of seapower or landpower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the evolution of sociology of youth in Russia. It examines various landmarks in the establishment of youth sociology in the country including the creation of a Sociology Group under the Central Committee of the Komsomol in 1964, the scientific theoretical conference on youth and socialism in 1967, and the conception of youth's social development during the perestroika period and the fall of communism. It also traces how the sociology of youth achieved its paradigmal status. It looks into the influence of human studies, education, historical materialism and social changes in the transformation of the science. Furthermore, it also evaluates the implication of the studies of the diversity of social practices among the young people.

This paper examines three dominant forms of national narratives concerning the fate of the Georgian nation: the old or classical narrative concerning the salvation and rescue of the Georgian nation despite imperial aggression; the narrative of the 'Rose Revolution' telling of the birth of a new nation; and a third narrative of the Georgian Christian Orthodox Church. The first narrative was favored by the old socialist intellectuals and has been eclipsed by the second narrative favored by 'new intellectuals'. Likewise the Orthodox narrative is not anchored on ancient Georgian churches but the new Shrine of the Trinity in Tbilisi. The paper argues that all three narratives embody realms of memory in Georgia and are vital to the understanding of impulses behind Georgian politics. It also suggests that Georgia has not so far undergone a full secularization in the Western sense and has been unable so far to construct new secular realms of memory though the old secular realms associated with the Shevardnadze era have been devalued. The article concludes by briefly discussing the significance of the Georgian intellectual Merab Mamardashvili whose grave in a common cemetery demonstrates the possibility of 'spontaneous' or 'vivid' memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]