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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.

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.

Abstract: HIV and AIDS in Russia: Regime Dynamics and ResponseOver the last two decades, the number of persons living with HIV in Russia has increased dramatically. According to WHO criteria, Russia is now facing a generalized HIV epidemic. This article analyzes how regime dynamics have influenced Russia's capacity to build a domestic response to the epidemic. Putin's cultural conservative turn in 2012 may have negatively affected the regime's ability to curb the spread of HIV. Evidence collected for this study indicates that three developments in particular have contributed to this. The first is the introduction of legislation aimed at reducing foreign involvement in Russia, which has weakened civil society as the main provider of prevention programs and services to key populations, and has forced global agencies to leave the country. Secondly, the increasing use of value-based conservative rhetoric after 2012 has meant better access to state structures, policy crafting and governmental funding for actors opposed to conventional methods of preventing HIV. Lastly, Putin's post-2012 cultural conception of the state has served to entrench Russian neopatrimonialism. As neopatrimonialism creates conditions unfavorable to successful implementation of reforms, including those necessary to deal with the ongoing epidemic, its stabilization may have assisted inaction as regards HIV.