The Russian S World

This volume examines Russian discourses of regionalism as a source of identity construction practices for the country's political and intellectual establishment. The overall purpose of the monograph is to demonstrate that, contrary to some assumptions, the transition trajectory of post-Soviet Russia has not been towards a liberal democratic nation state that is set to emulate Western political and normative standards. Instead, its foreign policy discourses have been constructing Russia as a supranational community which transcends Russia's current legally established borders. The study undertakes a systematic and comprehensive survey of Russian official (authorities) and semi-official (establishment affiliated think tanks) discourse for a period of seven years between 2007 and 2013. This exercise demonstrates how Russia is being constructed as a supranational entity through its discourses of cultural and economic regionalism. These discourses associate closely with the political project of Eurasian economic integration and the "Russian world" and "Russian civilization" doctrines. Both ideologies, the geoeconomic and culturalist, have gained prominence in the post-Crimean environment. The analysis tracks down how these identitary concepts crystallized in Russia's foreign policies discourses beginning from Vladimir Putin's second term in power.

Living in a small Polish town, Chaim (Harry) Farber was surrounded by family, friends, education and industry. But on September 1, 1939, everything changed, as German and Russian forces invaded Poland, splitting it between them. A larger shock occurred two years later when the Nazis, breaching their agreement with Russia, stormed the rest of Poland. Suddenly Chaim Farber found himself whisked into the Russian army. Working diligently-and being cautious with his words-Chaim was assigned to manage a central food warehouse for the army's battalions. Soon his responsibility grew, his status increased and he began travelling on assignment for the Russian Defense Department. Chaim made frequent connections, travelled throughout the vast Russian expanse, and, despite his feelings toward the Communist regime, developed respect for the country's people and its army. As the war concluded, with few of his family having eluded the Nazi terrors, Chaim risked a perilous border crossing to freedom, eventually reaching Canada, where he joined his sister and her husband. From there, relying on determination, guts and instinct, Harry started a building company that continues to thrive. From his home in Toronto, serving the legacy of a family long vanished but never forgotten, Chaim Farber now commits his story to paper more than six decades after having lived it. It is a story written not for enjoyment or entertainment, but for knowledge, and for wisdom, and out of love.

The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war’s beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a “tragedy of miscalculation.” Instead, he proposes that the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg. It was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. Unlike their civilian counterparts in Berlin, who would have preferred to localize the Austro-Serbian conflict, Russian leaders desired a more general war so long as British participation was assured. The war of 1914 was launched at a propitious moment for harnessing the might of Britain and France to neutralize the German threat to Russia’s goal: partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Nearly a century has passed since the guns fell silent on the western front. But in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, World War I smolders still. Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Jews, and other regional antagonists continue fighting over the last scraps of the Ottoman inheritance. As we seek to make sense of these conflicts, McMeekin’s powerful exposé of Russia’s aims in the First World War will illuminate our understanding of the twentieth century.

From renowned foreign policy expert Angela Stent comes a dissection of how Putin created a paranoid and polarized world -- and increased Russia's status on the global stage. How did Russia manage to emerge resurgent on the world stage and play a weak hand so effectively? Is it because Putin is a brilliant strategist? Or has Russia stepped into a vacuum created by the West's distraction with its own domestic problems and US ambivalence about whether it still wants to act as a superpower? Putin's World examines the country's turbulent past, how it has influenced Putin, the Russians' understanding of their position on the global stage and their future ambitions -- and their conviction that the West has tried to deny them a seat at the table of great powers since the USSR collapsed. This book looks at Russia's key relationships -- its downward spiral with the United States, Europe, and NATO; its ties to China, Japan, the Middle East; and with its neighbors, particularly the fraught relationship with Ukraine. Putin's World will help Americans understand how and why the post-Cold War era has given way to a new, more dangerous world, one in which Russia poses a challenge to the United States in every corner of the globe -- and one in which Russia has become a toxic and divisive subject in US politics.

For the first time in the national historiography, an attempt is made to give a comprehensive analysis of the Russian emigres community as the most important part of the Russian world at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, as a holistic phenomenon of modern history.Through a wide range of sources and scientific literature, the author of the book, Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Efim Pivovar, considers plots that are a key to characterizing his chosen theme: interrelation of the world of Russian emigres; the national historical consciousness; state policy of the Russian Federation towards emigres; intellectual dialogue between Russia and the Russian world; social portrait of a man of the Russian world; the Russian emigres civilization model and its development prospects.В формате PDF A4 сохранен издательский макет книги.

For a long time Russia’s position as a key global energy player has enhanced Moscow’s international economic and political influence whilst causing concern amongst other states fearful of becoming too dependent on Russia as an energy supplier. The Global Financial Crisis shook this established image of Russia as an indispensable energy superpower, immune to negative external influences and revealed the full extent of Russia’s dependence on oil and gas for economic and political influence. This led to calls from within the country for a new approach where energy resources were no longer regarded wholly as an asset, but also a potential curse resulting in an over reliance on one sector thwarting modernization of the economy and the country as a whole. In this fascinating and timely volume leading Russian and Western scholars examine various aspects of Russian energy policy and the opportunities and constraints that influence the choices made by the country’s energy decision makers. Contributors focus on Russia’s energy relations with the rest of the world alongside internal debates about the need for diversification and modernisation in a changing economy, country and world system where overdependence on energy commodities has become a key concern for customer and supplier alike.