Abstract in English: Review of Vory: den ryska supermaffianMi Lennhag reviews Vory: den ryska supermaffian (The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia) by Mark Galeotti (translated by Manne Svensson). The book examines organized crime in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. Historical, political and cultural contexts help explaining the Russian mafia and the phenomenon vory. Galeotti pictures a Russian society where politics and organized crime remain closely linked.
Denna bok lyfter frågan om hur vilka planer som finns i Ryssland för tiden efter Putin som president. Huvudargumentet är att de strategier för att bygga politisk legitimitet nästan helt har fokuserats på Putin som Rysslands räddare och beskyddare. Därmed har också möjliga efterträdare svårt att bygga upp en egen plattform. Den nya konstitutionen som möjliggör för Putin att sitta kvar fram till 2036 visar att man inte har någon lösning på detta dilemma. Kvar finns en åldrande president och ett politiskt system som i övrigt hyser lågt förtroende hos befolkningen. This book raises the question of Russia's plans for the time after Putin as Russia's president. The main argument is that the strategies for political legitimacy in Russia has focused almost entirely on Putin himself as the saviour and protector of the Russian nation. Consequently, any potential successor has a difficult task in building up his/her own platform. The new constitution, which makes it possible for Putin to continue as president until 2036 demonstrates that this dilemma has yet no solution. What remains is an aging president and a political system with a very low level of popular trust.
I boken Urban Protest: A Spatial Perspective on Kyiv, Minsk, and Moscow utvecklas och testas ett teoretiskt ramverk för att kartlägga hur massprotester påverkas av den plats där de utspelar sig och den politiska kontexten. Modellen är gedigen och utan tvekan ett bra verktyg för att förstå hur en specifik plats bidrar till att möjliggöra eller begränsa protesters utveckling. Författaren borde nöjt sig med detta och inte strävat efter att modellen också ska förklara varför protester »lyckas» eller »misslyckas». En sådan kausalitet framställer, felaktigt, massprotester som någon slags demokratisk »quick fix» trots att politisk förändring i de allra flesta fall i stället är resultatet av en lång utvecklingsprocess. Urban Protest: A Spatial Perspective on Kyiv, Minsk, and Moscow develops and tests a theoretical framework for mapping how mass protests are affected by the political context and the space in which they take place. This model provides a useful tool for understanding how a specific location contributes to facilitating or impeding a protest. However, the author should have stopped here, and not additionally tried to use the model to explain why protests 'succeed' or 'fail'. Such causality depicts mass protests as some kind of democratic 'quick fix – but, in the vast majority of cases, political change comes about as the result of a longer-term process.
Abstract: Poland: Ashes and DiamondsPoland: Ashes and Diamonds is a book about contemporary Poland, written by Ingrid Brekke, a knowledgeable Norwegian journalist. Its great merit is that it explains the contemporary political development in Poland through the prism of the country's history. The book is not devoid of some misinterpretations or minor errors; however, this is more than well compensated by its engaging style and skillful construction. The book is informative, easy-to-read and has a clear potential to increase the readers' understanding of Polish society and ignite their interest in the country.
Ett år i Belarus er ei samling av tekstar som gir skandinaviske lesarar eit innblikk i korleis belarusarane gjennomlevde og forsto det politiske opprøret som traff landet i 2020. Boka er full av sterke observasjonar og refleksjonar, og framstår difor som eit tidsbilete på ei historisk fase som no er forbi. Ett år i Belarus (One Year in Belarus), a collection of texts written by Belarusian authors, offers Scandinavian readers an understanding of how Belarusians lived through and interpreted the political upheavals that hit the country in 2020. The book is full of observations and reflections, offering valuable insights into a turbulent historical phase which has now passed.
Abstract in English:Russia and the Beginning of HistoryMorgan Olofsson's Russia and the Beginning of History consists of several interviews that the former Swedish news correspondent made with people he met in the 1990s. The purpose, he says, is to see how people have fared in the timespan from the 1990s to 2018, but also, more ambitiously, to sustain a dialogue between people on topics like the gradual dissemination of authoritarian political systems. Olofsson argues that we "need to learn from history" to protect democratic values; that is, values that connect people. The structure of the book is reminiscent of Mikhail Zygar's All the Kremlin's Men (2016), short annotated chapters, with introductions. The interviews stand out as sharp and perceptive, but the structure and editing of the book leaves more to be desired.
The article analyses representations of history in today's Russia as part of the ideology for expressing central political concepts underlying the Putinist regime. Mainstream interpretations of history build on a populist vision of Russia as a community with a stable, unchangeable core of identity. In this ideological context, history serves as the canvas on which the 'authentic' Russian identity manifests itself. The present research article examines representations of history by focusing on the concepts of 'historical sovereignty', 'unity of history', and the role of elites in history. It finds that regime ideology in today's Russia relies on a sizable infrastructure that involves producing historical knowledge for the purpose of securitizing history and making it an instrumental element in the populist (conservative-communitarian) ideology. Sources for this study come from the network exhibition 'Russia – My History', contextualized through content analysis of the key producers of ideology in Putin's Russia.
Abstract: The Child as an Instrument: Criticism of Titoist Discourse in Aleksandar Hemon's 'Islands' and Alma Lazarevska's 'Blagdan krunice'Especially since the war in the 1990s, much Bosnian-Herzegovinian fiction has employed the perspective of the child in order to express criticism of dominant ideological narratives. This article views the child figure as a political device that exposes the mechanisms of certain dominant discourses and that offers new, deviating angles on well-established conceptions within these discourses. The analysis of Alexander Hemon's short story 'Islands' (2000) stresses the grotesque imagery associated with the perception of the boy narrator as a way of 'unlearning' notions of Yugoslav modernity as idyllic, even paradisiac. And in Alma Lazarevska's 2003 'Blagdan krunice' (The Feast of the Rosary) the focus is not so much on the perspective of the boy protagonist as on his function as an arena for projecting narratives of the heroic soldier on the threshold between Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav discourse.
Fyrtårnet i Øst er en yderst velskrevet og informativ analyse af den fascination, som Ruslands præsident Vladimir Putin og hans system nyder i mange forskellige kredse i Vesten. Bogen er rig på detaljer, og den dækker et stort antal lande og forskellige typer af Putin-fascination. Den er kærkommen læsning i forbindelse med dels krigen i Ukraine, dels det politiske opgør som vil følge efter krigen. Her vil den uundgåelige diskussion være, om alt for mange gik alt for langt i deres dyrkelse af Putin og hans system?
Fyrtårnet i Øst (Lighthouse in the East) offers a well-written, informative analysis of the fascination accorded to Vladimir Putin and his system in various circles in the West. Rich in details, the book covers a large number of countries and different types of 'Putin fascination'. It is a welcome read in relation to the war in Ukraine, as well as the political showdown which is bound to ensue. The inevitable question will be: did too many go too far in their idolization of Putin and his system?
Abstract: Russia's operationalization of a sphere of interest in the South CaucasusA central foreign policy objective of Russia is to maintain an exclusive sphere of interest in its post-Soviet neighbourhood. This article analyses how Russia employs a combination of political and military instruments in operationalizing its perceived sphere of interest in the still conflict-ridden South Caucasus. Russia is the only external power in the region to have military bases there, and is the only one seemingly ready to undertake military action. At present, Russia appears satisfied with the status quo in the South Caucasus. The unresolved conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh are therefore unlikely to be resolved in the near future. Unresolved conflicts suit Russia's objectives. Russian military bases in Georgia and Armenia provide Moscow with both a key lever against Tbilisi and Yerevan and a structural advantage for potential Russian military operations in the region. Russia's military posture in the Caucasus is relevant to the potential for large-scale conflict in the Southern war theatre, including the wider Middle East, and not just local conflicts in the Caucasus.
Danish images of Russia in the 2010sThis article surveys how the editorial columns of five leading Danish newspapers treat Russia in the 2010s, building on an earlier study which focused on the first decade of the 2000s (Hansen 2010). The present study finds that the overall negative trajectory associated with Russia has continued, even grown more pronounced. In response, a minority position has developed on the fringes of political life in Denmark, holding that Russia is being demonized and that media coverage is too negative and essentially one-sided. The Danish newspapers surveyed focus on what is seen as an increasingly aggressive Russia violating borders and other established norms, and threatening its neighbours. The editorials reflect the gradual paradigm shift in views of Russia. They now speak openly of the need for Denmark to protect itself and its allies militarily against possible Russian aggression and to prevent Russia from wielding more power through its energy supplies to Europe, including supplies that traverse Danish territorial waters. Other topics in focus include Russia's invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea, its involvement in the war in Eastern Ukraine as well as its military campaign in Syria.
Abstract: A tragedy of the Galician diversity: Murder and commemoration of Polish professors killed in Lviv during WWIIIn popular imagery, the former Habsburg province of Galicia and its capital city Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv have been acclaimed for their unique mixture of religions, cultures and nationalities. However, there are also darker sides of this Galician diversity, as became evident during the wars and crises of the first half of the twentieth century. It is instructive to explore how the entanglements between collective and individual choices, cultural genealogies and political aspirations looked in practice in this part of Europe, and how historical events of the twentieth century have reflected this complexity. This article explores one such event: the murder of a group of eminent Polish academics during the Nazi occupation of Lviv/Lwów. After the war, this tragic episode was commemorated quite independently in the two parts of Galicia now divided by the redrawn Polish–(Soviet)Ukrainian border. The episode remains controversial due to the contradictory interpretative frameworks and agenda-setting of various actors involved into the memorialization. The author draws on Michael Rothberg's concept of multidirectional memory to highlight how reverberations of Galician diversity can be approached from an anthropological perspective, focusing on meaning-making and agency.
Abstract: Language policy in Slovakia and the Czech Republic after 1993The establishment of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993 sparked challenges for language policy in the two new states. From a linguistic point of view, the Czech and Slovak languages are very similar but the language situations in the two countries differ: Slovakia is home to two sizable linguistic minorities (Hungarian and Romani), whereas Czechia houses several small minority languages. Applying Robert L. Cooper's and Joshua A. Fishman's analytical categories and focusing on the activities of national politicians and prominent linguists, this article examines status and corpus planning in the two countries. In Slovakia, politicians have engaged intensely in status planning, focused on legislating Slovak as a state language. The establishment of a state language opened for political interference in corpus planning. In Czechia, status planning started out from a liberal platform in the 1990s, and interest mainly focused on corpus planning. Hotly debated questions of corpus planning put Czech linguistic authorities on the defensive. Increasingly, adaptations to the charters and conventions of the European Council have co-shaped both countries' language policy. During the period analyzed here, Slovakia has seen the linguistic standardization of Rusyn and Romani, and linguists in both countries have advanced their theoretical understanding of corpus planning.
Armenia's Velvet Revolution - Why So Overdue? In early April 2018 Armenia completed the transition from semi-presidential rule to a parliamentary republic. Under the slogan 'More power to the people', the ruling Republican Party had paved the way for the incumbent president, Serzh Sargsyan, to continue in power, now as prime minister as his second and final term of presidency was drawing to an end. However, the ensuing events ended with popular protests, the 'Velvet Revolution', which forced Sargsyan and the Republicans out of office. The new administration, led by the former opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan, has ousted several influential leaders and initiated an ambitious anti-corruption programme. Nonetheless, one significant issue remains: early elections that are supposed not only to reflect the prevailing political landscape in Armenia but also reform the country's election laws. What triggered the spring 2018 uprising, when corruption and social discontent have been both well-known and prevalent in Armenia over the past two decades? This article offers insights into the background to the popular uprising, and the relation between Armenia and its large and influential diaspora, citing two main factors for the delay since independence in 1991 – the historical legacy of the perils of internal disunity, together with the effects of the unresolved Karabakh conflict. It concludes with some reflections on the way forward.
