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Abstract: Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and AcademiaPål Kolstø (University of Oslo, Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages) reviews Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and Academia, edited by Kåre Johan Mjør and Sanna Turoma (Routledge, 2020).

Abstract: Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus Lene Wetteland (Norwegian Helsinki Committee) reviews Armenia and Europe: Foreign Aid and Environmental Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus by Dr. Pål Wilter Skedsmo. The book is a revised version of his 2017 PhD thesis in Social Anthropology. Skedsmo uses his personal experience from a project on environmental rights in Armenia in the early 2010s and Armenian civil society's application of the Aarhus Convention as case studies to discuss the issue of Europeanization of Armenia in this context.

The Cultural Is Political. Intersections of Russian Art and State Politics, edited by Irina Anisimova and Ingunn Lunde, is an edited volume dealing with various political ideologies and the ambiguous nature of cultural practices in contemporary Russia. The volume is a good introduction to a range of topics in the field of Russian studies.
The Cultural Is Political. Intersections of Russian Art and State Politics redigeret av Irina Anisimova og Ingunn Lunde er en artikelsamling, der fokuserer på diverse politiske ideologier og de tvetydige kulturelle former og praksisser i nutidens Rusland. Artikelsamlingen er en god introduktion til russiskstudieområdet.

Denne bokomtalen dreier seg om Hilma Salonens studie av overgangen til fornybar energi i Russlands arktiske strøk: Russian Renewable Energy Politics in the Arctic: National Priorities and Local Realities. Hun viser at det er mulig å realisere fornybar-prosjekter i fossilavhengige land som Russland. Selv om aktørene som fremmer slike prosjekter ikke synes å være fremtredende i Russland, viser studien at de har et visst handlingsrom som de lykkes med å utnytte.
In Russian Renewable Energy Politics in the Arctic: National Priorities and Local Realities, Hilma Salonen examines the renewable energy transition in the Russian Arctic. She documents how, even in a heavily fossil-fuel dominated country like Russia, renewable energy players can achieve their goals. Hidden at first glance, these actors exhibit features of agency and can act successfully to develop renewable energy projects.

Fabian Heffermehl, researcher at the University of Oslo, reviews The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia edited by Mikhail Suslov and Per Arne Bodin.

The Politics of Poverty in Contemporary Russia, by Ann-Mari Sätre, is reviewed by Kirsti Stuvøy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Landscape and Society, International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

In 2019, the Swedish government officially switched terminology from using the traditional endogenous term Vitryssland to the exogenous Belarus. Vitryssland (lit: White Russia) had been in use in the Swedish language since the 17th century, and the decision was neither easy nor swift. There was no consensus about the utility of the change, and significant opposition from linguists and editors against abandoning a term which had emerged and become established over centuries of contact. The debate preceding the switch was often shrill, led by activists and steeped in identity politics. In fact, controversies regarding what to call the country were nothing new, highlighting diverging visions of its geopolitical and cultural position between East and West. Discussions mirrored the far more emotional and polarized discussions among Belarusian nationalists in the 20th century, which at times became violent. Kryvia, Byelorussia, Greatlitva were but some of contenders. This article is an attempt to place discussions about the Swedish terminology in the larger context of history, memory, geopolitics and identity politics.

Per Anders Rudling, Wallenberg Academy Fellow at Lund University, reviews Between Lenin and Bandera: Decommunisation and Multivocality in (post)Euromaidan Ukraine written by Anna Kutina.

Dahlia Lenairte's Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania: Gender, Law and Society (2021) offers an account of the changing role and position of women in the family and in society under the Communist reign in Lithuania. Beginning with the first Soviet occupation before the Second World War, Lenairte details the massive changes from Catholicism to Communism with respect to gender policy, family, divorce, childcare, maternity leave, and finally housing, up until the 1980s. Importantly, she shows that, contrary to common belief about Communist policy, gender equality was in fact never achieved in Soviet Lithuania.
Dahlia Lenairtes bog Familie og stat i Sovjet Litauen: Køn, lov og samfund (2021) er en gennemgang af kvinders ændrede roller og position i samfundet og familien under det kommunistisk styre i Litauen. Med et afsæt fra den første sovjetiske besættelse før 2. Verdenskrig viser Lenairte de enorme ændringer der skete fra katolicisme til kommunisme med hensyn til ligestilling, familie, skilsmisse, børnepasning og barselsorlov, og endelig boligsituationen op til begyndelsen af 1980'erne. I modsætning til den almindelige forståelse af kommunistisk ligestillingspolitik bliver det tydeligt, at kvinder aldrig opnåede at blive ligestillet med mænd.

Mens journalister har lett for å ty til adjektiver for å beskrive et økologisk katastrofeområde, er det vanskeligere å se og formidle årsakssammenhenger. Hvorfor fikk ikke sovjetiske, senere russiske, myndigheter i samarbeid med sine nordiske naboland stanset de grenseoverskridende svovelskyene fra østsiden av Pasvikelven? Det er disse spørsmålene Lars Rowe på en systematisk og beundringsverdig godt dokumentert måte gir svar på i boken Pollution and Atmosphere in Post-Soviet Russia: The Arctic and the Environment.
Journalists easily find adjectives to describe environmental catastrophes; it is more difficult, however, to ascertain and convey their causes. Why, for example, didn't Soviet, and later Russian, authorities collaborate with Nordic neighbors and manage to put a stop to the sulphur clouds emanating from the eastern side of the Pasvik River? Lars Rowe looks at this question in a systematic and admirably well-documented way and provides answers in his book, Pollution and Atmosphere in Post-Soviet Russia: The Arctic and the Environment.

Niels Bo Poulsen, director of the Department of Military History and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College, reviews Industry, War and Stalin's Battle for Resources: The Arctic and the Environment by Lars Rowe.

Abstract: Religion, Expression, and Patriotism in Russia: Essays on Post-Soviet Society and the StateYuliya Yurchuk (postdoctoral researcher, Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University) reviews Religion, Expression, and Patriotism in Russia: Essays on Post-Soviet Society and the State, edited by Sanna Turoma, Kaarina Aitamurto and Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover.