Conversations On Russia

Much of the discussion of Russia's recent post-Communist history has amounted, both in Russia and the West, to a series of monologues by strong-minded people with starkly divergent views. In contrast, Padma Desai's conversations with influential, intelligent participants and observers provide the reader with a broad, nuanced view of what has and has not happened in the last fourteen years, and why. Conversations from Russia will thus serve as a much-needed reference volume, both for academics who study Russia and for laypeople who only have vague perceptions of what has occurred in Russia since the collapse of Communism. In conversations with important figures like Boris Yeltsin, George Soros, Anatoly Chubais, and Yegar Gaidar, Desai considers questions like why the Soviet Union fell apart under Gorbachev, what went wrong with economic reforms after Gorbachev, whether the privatization of Russian assets could have been managed differently, and what the prospects are for the Russian economy in the near future. Desai, a recognized expert in the field of Soviet studies, ties the interviews together with an introduction, ultimately reaching her own judgment on each issue considered in the conversations. This book will appeal to researchers and students in developmental economics, political economy, and Soviet studies, and educated laypeople interested in Russia.

When face-to-face with a real Russian speaker, do you freeze? Do you know how to ask for directions in Russian or communicate if there's an emergency? If your answer to any of the previous questions was 'Yes', then this book is for you! If there's anything more challenging than learning the grammar rules of a new language, it's knowing what to say and having the courage to speak with confidence. We know how you feel - You always try to avoid making embarrassing mistakes or not getting your message through correctly, but it will happen anyway. 'How do I get out of this situation?', You may ask yourself, but have yet to find a straight-forward answer. Until now. We have compiled 50 Russian Stories along with their translations, providing new Russian speakers with the necessary tools to begin effectively studying how to set a meeting, how to check into a hotel and even what to say during an emergency! Our Russian dialogues get straight to the point saving you precious time. There's no benefit learning words and phrases you will never actually use! If you want to learn Russian quickly and have a ton of fun along the way, obviously, this book is for you! How Conversational Russian Dialogues works: • Each new chapter will have a fresh, new story between two or more people who wish to solve a common, day-to-day problem that you will most likely experience in real life. • A Russian version of the conversation will take place first, followed by an English translation. This ensures that you fully understood just what it was that they were saying! • Before and after the main section of the book, we shall provide you with an introduction and conclusion that will offer you important strategies, tips and tricks to allow you to get the absolute most out of this learning material. • That's about it! Simple, useful and incredibly helpful; you will NOT need another conversational Russian book once you have started reading and studying this one! Focus on getting from zero to conversationally fluent, so you can: -Travel or live in Russia or any Russian speaking country without relying on Google Translate -Join Russian conversations with your Russian speaking coworkers, friends, or family members -Date Russian-speakers without embarrassing yourself -Stop getting passed over for jobs or promotions for less-qualified people who are bilingual We want you to feel confident while learning Russian; after all, there should never be a language barrier stopping you from traveling around the world and expanding your social circles! So look no further! Grab your copy of Conversational Russian Dialogues and start learning Russian right now!

In 'Conversation In Exile, ' John Glad brings together interviews with fourteen prominent Russian writers in exile, all of whom currently live in the United States, France, or Germany. Conducted between 1978 and 1989, these frank and captivating interviews provide a rich and complex portrait of a national literature in exile.

Is America in a new Cold War with Russia? How does a new Cold War affect the safety and security of the United States? Does Vladimir Putin really want to destabilize the West? What should Donald Trump and America’s allies do? America is in a new Cold War with Russia even more dangerous than the one the world barely survived in the twentieth century. The Soviet Union is gone, but the two nuclear superpowers are again locked in political and military confrontations, now from Ukraine to Syria. All of this is exacerbated by Washington’s war-like demonizing of the Kremlin leadership and by Russiagate’s unprecedented allegations. US mainstream media accounts are highly selective and seriously misleading. American “disinformation,” not only Russian, is a growing peril. In War With Russia?, Stephen F. Cohen—the widely acclaimed historian of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia—gives readers a very different, dissenting narrative of this more dangerous new Cold War from its origins in the 1990s, the actual role of Vladimir Putin, and the 2014 Ukrainian crisis to Donald Trump’s election and today’s unprecedented Russiagate allegations. Topics include: Distorting Russia US Follies and Media Malpractices 2016 The Obama Administration Escalates Military Confrontation With Russia Was Putin’s Syria Withdrawal Really A “Surprise”? Trump vs. Triumphalism Has Washington Gone Rogue? Blaming Brexit on Putin and Voters Washington Warmongers, Moscow Prepares Trump Could End the New Cold War The Real Enemies of US Security Kremlin-Baiting President Trump Neo-McCarthyism Is Now Politically Correct Terrorism and Russiagate Cold-War News Not “Fit to Print” Has NATO Expansion Made Anyone Safer? Why Russians Think America Is Attacking Them How Washington Provoked—and Perhaps Lost—a New Nuclear-Arms Race Russia Endorses Putin, The US and UK Condemn Him (Again) Russophobia Sanction Mania Cohen’s views have made him, it is said, “America’s most controversial Russia expert.” Some say this to denounce him, others to laud him as a bold, highly informed critic of US policies and the dangers they have helped to create. War With Russia? gives readers a chance to decide for themselves who is right: are we living, as Cohen argues, in a time of unprecedented perils at home and abroad?

As one of the first Western ethnographers working in Moscow, Nancy Ries became convinced that talk is one crucial way in which Russian identity is constructed and reproduced. Listening to the grim stories people used to characterize their lives during perestroika, and encountering the florid pessimism with which Muscovites described the unraveling of Soviet governance, Ries realized that these dire tales played a crucial role in fabricating a sense of shared experience and destiny. While many of the narratives aptly depicted the chaotic social and political events, they also promoted key images of "Russianness" and presented Russian society as an inescapable realm of injustice, absurdity, and suffering. At the height of perestroika in the early 1990s, Moscow residents commonly used the phrase "complete ruin" to refer to the disintegration of Russian society, encompassing in that phrase the escalation of crime, the disappearance of goods from stores, the fall of production, ecological catastrophes, ethnic violence in the Caucasus, the degradation of the arts, and the flood of pornography. Ries argues that such stories became a genre of folklore consistent in their lamenting, portentous tone and their dramatic, culturally poignant details.

In this practical guide for Russians learning American English, both languages appear side by side in typical real-life dialogues about banking, eating out, visiting the doctor, and much more.

Russia is a hot topic these days. Did they or didn't interfere in our elections in 2016? I won't answer that in my book, but, what I will do is give the reader the tools, even the skills, to make that decision for themselves. I have been living and working in Russia since 1994. This book is like a crash course on Russia and what makes Russia do what Russia does. The story does not unfold in a strict flow of time--it is my life and my thoughts and they appear here as they were needed to help me to better understand my "Russian journey," to answer the questions--what is Russia and why am I here?After graduating from high school in 1985, I learned Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California and became a Russian linguist. In 1990. as a 22-year old student at Rutgers University, I was rambunctious and determined to change the world. Instead, I ended up in Leningrad--the Northern Capital of the Soviet Union. It was love at first site. Shortly after the failed coup in Moscow in August 1991, I returned and began my "life" in a Soviet-Russian context. I left again for graduate school at The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. With a Master's in my hands, I was filled with the best intentions returning to help the struggling country survive the very difficult period of transition. Grants from the World Bank, Echoing Green and other funds fueled my vision and sure, my "two-cents" might have helped a bit; often it seems, though, that Russia was more helpful in my own survival. Having learned to think, feel, live and express myself in a post-Soviet world that was at times harsh and unforgiving, my 29 years in Russia have never been ones void of adventure.Despite having built major companies and leading brands in the post-Soviet space, I never set out to make lots of money like so many before and after me. My journey has been a love affair with a city that lured me to it since I was as young as ten. Those whispers of history called and called. Today, I am 53 years old and each day surviving Russia has been as unique as that first overcast evening at the Finnish border on June 15, 1990. There always seems to be a backdrop for everything in the country that just somehow makes you stop, take notice and say--Whoa, cool. I have survived three divorces, the death of both parents, grandmothers, the death of a brother and even the loss of a prematurely born child. I had a café called "The Brooklyn Bridge" practically stolen from me by the mafia and my own employees; and yet, here I am still trying to make the city a bit better, a bit more livable. My story is not a political one, however, but one about normal Russians who have crossed my path over the past 29 years. This story also does not delve into my professional accomplishments of the past 15 years (since 2005) despite the "amazing" level some of them have risen to. One thing that was of particular significance for me professionally, however, was the creation of Russia House in Davos during the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting (2016-2018). Russia was officially avoiding Davos and I kept the country present on this world stage by launching "my" version of Russia. "White Nights and Dark Days" has helped me answer the question so many Americans have asked since I first set out for Russia in 1994--"what the hell are you doing in Russia?" I have asked myself this same question countless times --it seems that I might have actually stumbled an answer. If you like to explore other cultures then this book is for you. If you want to learn how to succeed professionally in a foreign culture, give this a read. If you want to take a peak into a journey through a place and a time that few have written about, then "White Nights and Dark Days: A Conversation with St. Petersburg, Russia" is for you.This is a book about survival, about never giving up. It is a book about love.