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The rejection of authoritarianism / Philip G. Roeder -- The dynamics of democratic erosion / M. Steven Fish -- The discursive origins of Russian Democratic politics / Richard D. Anderson, Jr. -- Defining democratic consolidation / Stephen E. Hanson -- Conclusion: Postcommunism and the theory of democracy / Richard D. Anderson, Jr....[et al.].

Celebrated food scholar Darra Goldstein takes readers on a vivid tour of history and culture through Russian cuisine. The Kingdom of Rye unearths the foods and flavors of the Russian land. Preeminent food studies scholar Darra Goldstein offers readers a concise, engaging, and gorgeously crafted story of Russian cuisine and culture. This story demonstrates how national identity is revealed through food—and how people know who they are by what they eat together. The Kingdom of Rye examines the Russians' ingenuity in overcoming hunger, a difficult climate, and a history of political hardship while deciphering Russia's social structures from within. This is a domestic history of Russian food that serves up a deeper history, demonstrating that the wooden spoon is mightier than the scepter

Цель политических акций – создание и поддержка определенной структуры политической мифологии. От выбора каналов ее распространения зависел успех акций. В советский период печатные издания считались самыми эффективными, являлись главными поставщиками и производителями мифов. ; The purpose of political campaigns is to create and support certain structure of political mythology. The success of the campaigns depends on the choice of promotional channels. In Soviet Union printed materi-als were considered to be the most effective channels and they were the main distributors and makers of myths.

AbstractDuring the Cold War, United States (US) policies towards the Middle East and towards Afghanistan and Pakistan were largely unrelated. India's non-alignment and relations with the Soviet Union were reasons for close US-Pakistani relations, but the Chinese success in the war with India in 1962 also highlighted the importance to the West of India's position. 1979 marked a major turning point in US foreign policy towards the Middle East and Central Eurasia (CEA) because of the two events which were to shape so much of politics and geopolitics in those regions as well as in the wider international system: namely, the Iranian revolution in February and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December. Taken together, these developments posed a major challenge to US strategy towards the Soviet Union, to the wider Middle East and to relations with China, Pakistan, and India. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan during 1988/89, the US lost interest in Afghanistan and followed the policies of Pakistan for most of the 1990s. Then came 9/11 and President Musharraf took the historic decision to break with the Taliban. In March 2003, the US began its second war against Iraq. Whatever the rationale for the conflict, the outcome has been to turn the future of Iraq into a key fault-line of geopolitics in the Greater Middle East. Now, with the instability following the collapse of the Soviet Empire in CEA, the defeat of the Taliban and the ongoing future of Iraq, the US faces what the Department of Defense describes as an "arc of instability" running from the Middle East through CEA to Northeast Asia. This is the region that lies at the centre of planning for the "long war" announced in the Pentagon's 2006 quadrennial review.

Red Militarism, a term coined in the early years of Soviet Russia during the debate about the future organization of armed force in a socialist society, became a renewed charge after the USSR invasion into Afghanistan at the end of 1979. This article aims to give an overview of the debate about Red Militarism from the beginnings up to most recent writings. In the USSR, the debate terminated when Trotsky left the country, and was briefly revived in the thirties when Stalin used the issue to denounce and purge the Red Army. The theoretical underpinnings of this debate are evaluated and used to consider more recent manifestations of Red Militarism. The ideological split between the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union and China has led, inter alia, to mutual accusations of militarism. The Soviet charges of 'Social Militarism' in China are scrutinized in order to understand how Soviet analysts of today conceptualize and measure Red Militarism. The conclusion is that definitions of this kind are also appli cable to the Soviet Union itself. Leftist Juntas in a number of Third World countries are also examined by a variety of authors with respect to the question whether their proclaimed socialism fits into any attitude which ought to be labelled militarism. The conclusions suggested by more elaborated studies are that the militarism phenomenon is also in its socialist variation a more coherent develop ment than usually imagined. In the more advanced systems of 'real socialism', notably the USSR, the explanation for the rise of the phenomenon is heavily linked with the assessment of these states being ruled by bureaucratic elites. According to the specifics of this interpretation, the question about the expansionist and imperialist nature of Red Militarism is answered in a negative way.

The topic of the thesis deals with Russia and the Olympic Movement, studying Russian national identity as it is described in the newspaper Sovetskij Sport during three past Winter Olympic Games (1988, 1992, 1994) and the upcoming Winter Olympic Games that take place in Sochi 2014 in the framework of international politics. The research task is to analyze, what kinds of discourses do the writings of Russian Olympic Committee's leading sports journal Sovetskij Sport use in times of the above mentioned Olympic Games in relation to the "West". It is studied, in which way can these discourses be understood as representations of national identity in the framework of political upheavals. Politics and sport are intertwined. Sport is a traditional arena for states to compete for symbolic, and material benefits. The symbolic development of sport is most satisfactorily comprehended when culture, sport, media, economics and ideology are all maintained as strong terms in the debate. Media is an important channel in influencing the masses with descriptions of reality. This thesis is grounded in the framework of International Relations theory's approach of interpretive, constructivist thinking, drawing from sociology and symbolic interactionism. The post-positivistic approach introduced instability and change into the study of international affairs. The expressions the Winter Olympic Games produce in a widely published newspaper correspond with the political reality as it is conceived at given times. Years 1988, 1992, 1994 were the times of Olympic Games when national identity had to be represented through the differing political regimes of Soviet Union, the CIS and Russia. The end of the Soviet Union was followed by the rise of 'Westernization' and the subsequent nationalistic tendencies, with attempts to define Russia's place in the international community. Olympic sports mirrored the challenges to the Great Power status and definitions that came with the lack of resources, dispersion of national identity and pride once defined by the powerful, party –led communist regime. The Winter Games in Sochi 2014, Russia represent an opportunity to establish a once again powerful might that is at the same time a recognized partner to the Western community. Discourse analysis is the research method used in this study. The prevailing discourse categories found in the materials represent nationality, the political system, the ways other countries perceive Soviet-Russia during the Games, the dominant system of sport, and commercialisation. The results show that the eras corresponding with the years of study reflect the state of international politics, and interaction between the different political systems of the 'West' and the Soviet Union/ Russia, drawing insights from the differing cultural aspects and the effects of economic systems. According to the results, national identity is clearly represented in the newspaper discourses, during Soviet Union through the communist propaganda of superiority, in the time of the CIS through the insecurities corresponding to the political system, and for Russia, reflecting challenges faced in disappointments with dealings with the 'West' – but at the same time with emotional notions of a homeland, blessed with the continuity of cultural uniqueness.

Between August and September 1991, the Baltic States forced their break with the USSR, just a few months before the latter disintegrated. From that moment on, the recovery of national independence and sovereignty – first established during the inter-war period only to be thwarted by the pact between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 – as well as the consolidation of democracy, the rule of law and a market economy, were given impetus by their desire to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After more than a decade of major transformations, both political and socio-economic in nature, the three Baltic States – Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia – have successfully achieved the two fundamental prerequisites for a future of peace, liberty, prosperity and security in the twenty-first century: their «return to Europe» as members of the European Union and their link with the Euro-Atlantic military alliance as members of NATO. ; Entre agosto y septiembre de 1991, los Países Bálticos forzaron su ruptura con la Unión Soviética, pocos meses antes de que ésta se desintegrara totalmente. A partir de ese momento, la recuperación de su independencia y soberanía nacional -fraguada por primera vez en la época de entreguerras y frustrada por el pacto germano-soviético de 1939-, así como la consolidación de la democracia y el Estado de Derecho y la economía social de mercado, fue de la mano de su aspiración de integración en la Unión Europea y en la Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte. Después de más de una década de grandes transformaciones, tanto políticas como socioeconómicas, los tres Países Bálticos -Lituania, Estonia y Letonia- han logrado cumplir con éxito aquellos dos objetivos fundamentales para su futuro en paz, libertad, prosperidad y seguridad en el siglo XXI: el «retorno a Europa» en el marco de la Unión Europea y su vinculazión a la alianza militar euroatlántica dentro de la OTAN.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM AND GORBACHEV'S HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION IS A CONSTANT SUBJECT OF INTERPRETATION AND DEBATE. THE IMAGE OF A 'REX DESTRUENS' MAY BE AN APPROPRIATE WAY OF INTERPRETING HIS ROLE. THAT ROLE MAY DERIVE FROM HIS MISINTERPRETATION OF THE SOVIET UNION'S PROPER PLACE IN THE WORLD. AT A TIME WHEN WESTERN EUROPE HAD ACCOMMODATED ITSELF TO SOME OF THE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF SOVIET 'SOCIALISM', PARTICULARLY THE NOTION OF STATE PROVISION OF WELFARE AND THE COUNTRY'S ROLE IN THE DEFEAT OF FASCISM, AND WAS ITSELF BECOMING A POWERFUL ECONOMIC ACTOR, AFTER YEARS ON THE DEFENSIVE CAPITALISM FOUND ITSELF THE TARGET OF GORBACHEV'S KEEN INTEREST. MOREOVER, THE EXPERIENCE OF A BIPOLAR GLOBAL STRATEGY OVER FOUR DECADES LED GORBACHEV TO SEEK ACCOMMODATION WITH THE UNITED STATES, RATHER THAN PURSUING THE NOTION OF A 'COMMON EUROPEAN HOME'. INSTEAD OF CONTRIBUTING TO THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF EUROPEAN VALUES, GORBACHEV'S SOVIET UNION ADOPTED THE IDEOLOGY OF MASS CONSUMPTION CAPITALISM SPONSORED WORLDWIDE BY THE UNITED STATES. IT THEREBY DASHED THE HOPES OF GENERATIONS OF THOSE WHO HAD SOUGHT A HUMANE ALTERNATIVE TO THAT IDEOLOGY. IT IS FAR FROM CLEAR THAT POST-SOVIET RUSSIA HAS SUCCESSFULLY ESCAPED FROM ITS OLD IDEOLOGY OR WHOLEHEARTEDLY EMBRACED ITS NEW ONE.