Category: History, Soviet Union

JRL NEWSWATCH: “What 70 Years of War Can Tell Us About the Russia-Ukraine Conflict” – New York Times

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Military, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

“Despite some postmodern features, the fighting resembles a type of conflict from decades past: wars fought between nations in which one does not conquer the other outright.” “Any Russian invasion of Ukraine was long expected to … [be] defined by 21st-century weapons like media manipulation, battlefield-clouding disinformation, cyberattacks, false flag operations and unmarked fighters. Such elements have [been] featured …. […]

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Ruslan Khasbulatov, Whose 1993 Showdown With Yeltsin Led To Deadly Parliament Shelling, Dies Aged 80

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Article text Copyright © 2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. – rferl.org – January 4, 2023 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/russia-khasbulatov-soviet-chairman-dies/32207078.html) Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Russian politician whose dramatic standoff with then-President Boris Yeltsin in 1993 led to the deadly shelling of the parliament […]

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Moscow’s Invasion Of Ukraine Triggers ‘Soul-Searching’ At Western Universities As Scholars Rethink Russian Studies

Education, Academia, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Russia & the West, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

(Article text Copyright © 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. – rferl.org – Todd Prince – Jan. 1, 2023 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/russia-war-ukraine-western-academia/32201630.html) When more than 2,000 Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies specialists from around the world gather in Philadelphia later […]

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AUDIO: JRL NEWSWATCH: “A century and counting: Ukraine’s ongoing fight to free itself from Russia” – NPR

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

“The past century in Ukraine has been packed with monumental events — wars, famines, political upheavals. Yet there’s a recurring theme that can be boiled down to a single sentence: Ukraine tries to break free from Russia, and Russia refuses to let it go. … Ukrainians thought this matter was finally resolved in December 1991, when … [in] a referendum[,] […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky” – Time

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Military, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
Screenshot file photo of Volodymyr Zelensky Gesturing, from Congressional Teleconference, adapted from image at doggett.house.gov

“Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious. It spread through Ukraine’s political leadership in the first days of the invasion, as everyone realized the President had stuck around. … During his childhood, Zelensky’s grandmother would talk about the time when Soviet soldiers came to confiscate the food grown in Ukraine, its vast […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Cracking open ‘The Nutcracker’s’ dark Russian past; Behind the holiday classic lies an unsavory history that may change the way you think about it” – Washington Post

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts, Poland, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Ballerina and Male Ballet Dancer in The Nutcracker. adapted from image at defense.gov, with credit U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Chris Harper

“… The fruits of a violent imperial system lie behind the work’s bright, bouncy ‘Chinese’ dance … and its slow, seductive ‘Arabian’ scene…. At ‘The Nutcracker’s’ premiere … [in] 1892, in St. Petersburg, the ballet paid homage to the czar and his empire …. If you look at some of the forces giving rise to it, and that still live […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Russian Empire Must Die: A better future requires Putin’s defeat — and the end to imperial aspirations” – The Atlantic

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

“… The cultural weight of the past is heavy, and the habits of autocracy — especially the habit of living in fear — persist. The attraction of power is also strong. … and the next government of Russia might well be even more repressive …. Countries evolve, sometimes creating better governments … sometimes worse …. Empires fall: The Russian empire […]

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A New Putin Biography: Rich Stories of Early Life, and Some Needless America Bashing

Books, New Books, Book Releases, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Paul Saunders – Oct. 26, 2022) Paul Saunders is the president of the Energy Innovation Reform Project and a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Center for the National Interest. BOOK REVIEW“Putin” By Philip Short Henry Holt and Co., July 2022 As Russia continues its devastating war in Ukraine, those inside and outside […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Will Our Scholarship On Nineteenth-Century Russian Culture Change In Response To Russia’s War On Ukraine?” – NYU Jordan Center

Education, Academia, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

“On May 25, 2022, six scholars — all primarily Russia specialists — responded to the question of how scholarship on nineteenth-century Russian culture would change in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. … and we hope the articles will help advance our field’s urgent discussion of how best to move forward. My own work focuses on Russian literature, and often […]

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Towards Decolonizing Eastern European and Eurasian Art and Material Culture: From the 1800s to the present [deadline Nov. 1, 2022]

Calls for Papers, Calls for Proposals, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

Subject: [seelangs-l] CFP: Towards Decolonizing Eastern European and Eurasian Art and Material Culture: From the 1800s to the present Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2022 From: Hanna Chuchvaha <hanna.chuchvaha@ucalgary.ca> Call for Proposals (deadline November 1, 2022): Towards Decolonizing Eastern European and Eurasian Art and Material Culture: From the 1800s to the present Proposed edited volume by Hanna Chuchvaha (University of Calgary) […]

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The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: 6 Timeless Lessons for Arms Control

Cuba, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Nuclear, Missile Defense
Map of Ranges of Soviet Missiles on Cuba

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Graham Allison – Oct. 4, 2022) This is a summary of an article originally published by Arms Control Today.The author, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, writes: “October marks the 60th anniversary of the most dangerous crisis in recorded history. In October 1962, U.S. President John Kennedy faced off with […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Gorbachev died shocked and bewildered by Ukraine conflict – interpreter” – Reuters

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“Mikhail Gorbachev … [reportedly] was shocked and bewildered by the Ukraine conflict in the months before he died and psychologically crushed in recent years by Moscow’s worsening ties with Kyiv …. [Interpreter] Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with [him]  for 37 years … at his side at numerous U.S.-Soviet summits, spoke to Gorbachev a few weeks ago by phone and said […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who changed the world” – Christian Science Monitor

Europe, EU, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“Mikhail Gorbachev helped end the Cold War and oversaw the demise of the totalitarian Soviet Union, offering freedom and hope. But his dream of a ‘common European homeland’ has died.” “… Gorbachev … lived long enough to witness his greatest legacy, the peaceful unwinding of the USSR into 15 sovereign nation states, being destroyed. The current war in Ukraine is […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russian politicians offer mixed view of Gorbachev’s legacy” – AP

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

“Russian officials and lawmakers treaded carefully … reacting to Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, praising … his role in ending the Cold War but deploring his failure to avert the collapse of the Soviet Union. … [S]tate television broadcasts … paid tributes to Gorbachev as a historic figure but described his reforms as poorly planned and held him responsible for failing to […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine’s Russian ‘Liberators’ Are Seeing That We Live Better Than They Do” – New York Times/ Yegor Firsov

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Military, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“… This war is … Putin’s fatal mistake. Not because of economic sanctions and not because of the huge losses of troops and tanks but because [] Putin’s soldiers are from some of the poorest and most rural regions of Russia. Before this war, these men were encouraged to believe that Ukrainians lived in poverty and were culturally, economically and […]

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Imperializing Russia: Empire by Default or Design?

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Military, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 799 – Marlene Laruelle – Aug. 22, 2022) Marlene Laruelle is Research Professor and Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at the Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is both a strategic conflict with the West to reshape the post-Cold War […]

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War With Ukraine as Other Means to Speed Up Reversal of Russia’s ‘Civilizational Choice’

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

(Russia Matters – Simon Saradzhyan – russiamatters.org – Aug. 12, 2022) Simon Saradzhyan is the founding director of the Russia Matters Project. To Vladimir Putin, the war in Ukraine is obviously not an end in itself. Rather, it is one of multiple means by which he’d like to attain multiple aims. Of these, one appears to be somewhat overlooked and undeservedly […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Who Is Vladimir Putin? Philip Short’s ‘Putin’ is an impressive biography but one that necessarily lacks the final chapters of the story.” – New York Times

Books, New Books, Book Releases, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Vladimir Putin file photo, adapted from screenshot of video at shareamerica.gov

“PUTIN, by Philip Short | Illustrated | 864 pp. | Henry Holt & Company | $40 … Short’s account is both perfectly and unfortunately timed, arriving just when we most need to understand Putin, yet missing the chapter that may yet define his place in history. … Short’s version nonetheless offers a compelling, impressive and methodically researched account of Putin’s […]

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Vladimir Padunov (1947-2022)

Education, Academia, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, In Memoriam, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Lit Candle with Reflection and Dark Background

Subject: [seelangs-l] Vladimir Padunov (1947-2022) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 From: Russell Valentino <russellv@indiana.edu> To: seelangs-l@list.indiana.edu Vladimir (Volodia) Padunov was born on 4 June 1947 in a displaced persons (DP) camp in Aschaffenburg (Germany). His mother (a Ukrainian farm worker) and his father (a Russian chemistry instructor and soldier) met in the DP system when the slave-labor camps and PoW […]

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Why Putin Needs Peter the Great

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Statue of Peter the Great on Horse Atop Rock in St. Petersburg, Russia, adapted from image at cia.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Andrei Zorin – June 23, 2022) Andrei Zorin is a professor of Russian and a fellow of New College at the University of Oxford. Putin’s attitude toward history may at first glance seem contradictory. On one hand, he is a diehard traditionalist who gives historical justifications for his decisions, appeals to the national past as […]

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The Week In Russia: ‘The Complete Collapse Of Everything’

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Military, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Sweden, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Statue of Peter the Great on Horse Atop Rock in St. Petersburg, Russia, adapted from image at cia.gov

(Article text Copyright © 2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. – rferl.org – Steve Gutterman – June 10, 2022 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/week-in-russia-complete-collapse-of-everything/31892257.html) As the war in Ukraine rages, Russian President Vladimir Putin likens himself to Tsar Peter the Great — but […]

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AUDIO: “Teddy Goes to the USSR”

Audio, Headlines, History, Soviet Union, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Soviet ICBM in Parade With Soviet Flag Bearing Image of Lenin in Background

Subject: Teddy Goes to the USSR Date: Mon, 16 May 2022 From: Sean Guillory I have a 6-part audio documentary called Teddy Goes to the USSR coming out on May 30. Would you be willing to list the trailer in an upcoming JRL? Here’s some text and a link to the trailer: anchor.fm/sean-guillory/episodes/Trailer-2-Teddy-Goes-to-the-USSR-e1ijo5a/a-a7ug7ap  Coming May 30! Americans believed the […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Spies Will Doom Putin; After invading Ukraine, he’s tightening the screws the way the Soviets did — and that will help the CIA recruit Russians.” – WSJ

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Spies, Spy Allegations, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

“… Resurrecting the Soviet empire, as [] Putin wants to do, brings with it the same forces that prompted most of the Warsaw Pact’s best CIA agents to turn against the Kremlin. Agents across the Soviet bloc often shared the same desire: to inflict whatever harm they could. … not for money, but to undermine a toxic system that enriched […]

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Putin’s Unintended Place in History: Destroyer not Reuniter of Rus’

Headlines, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War
European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

Subject: Putin’s Unintended Place in History: Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2022 From: Ira Straus <irastraus@aol.com> Putin’s Unintended Place in History: Destroyer not Reuniter of Rus’ By Ira Straus Putin has cemented his place in history, but it is not the one he wanted. He will be remembered, not as the reuniter of ancient Rus’, but as its final destroyer. The […]

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RUSSIALINK: “For a Troubled Russian Region, Stalin is a Local Hero” – Moscow Times

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Regions, Cities, Municipalities
File Phot of Attlee, Truman, Stalin at Potsdam, adapted from image at osti.gov

Pukhayev and other local Stalin critics are left casting around for explanations …. “Stalinism is our national Stockholm syndrome,” he said, referring to a psychological condition in which hostages develop an emotional bond with their captors […]

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Back in the USSR: Are Residents of Former Republics Better Off 30 Years Later?

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, History, Soviet Union
Soviet ICBM in Parade With Soviet Flag Bearing Image of Lenin in Background

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – RM Staff – Dec. 16, 2021) Thirty years ago this month, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics officially ceased to exist. The 15 republics which had made up the Soviet Union were confronted with uncertain paths as they endeavored to establish political structures and reform economic systems. They faced unresolved territorial questions, socio-economic crises and […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia clamps down on historical memory and justice” – Financial Times

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Gulag file photo featuring barbed wire across open ceiling, adapted from image at nps.gov

“The threat to liquidate the research group Memorial is an assault on a brave outpost of post-Soviet civil society.” “… Putin’s crackdown on dissent is inextricable from a desire to control Russia’s past. … Memorial has [painstakingly] compiled a database of more than 3m victims of Soviet political repression, mostly … executed, imprisoned, sent to labour camps or exiled during […]

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RUSSIALINK: “In Russia’s South, the Remains of a Greek City Hint at Cosmopolitan Past” – Moscow Times

Greece, History, Soviet Union, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Image Taken From Space of Black Sea Region, Krasnodar and Environs, adapted from image at nasa.gov

Situated outside the small village of Sennoy, Phanagoria, now one of Russia’s best-resourced and highest-profile digs, shines a light … on the region’s long-lost Ancient Greek heritage […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Lenin would be baffled: Russia’s once-tame Communist Party is becoming an opposition force: The Kremlin and the party’s own leader are worried” – The Economist

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, JRL NewsBlog, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian State Duma Building file photo

“… many Russian democrats, desperate to get Yeltsin’s successor [Putin] out of the Kremlin, find themselves voting for the Communists. … aware of the irony. … With nearly all forms of politics banned and [] Navalny behind bars, the Communist Party … [has benefited the most from Navalny’s] ‘smart voting’ strategy. … Had … votes been counted honestly in parliamentary […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Archie Brown Is Awarded the Pushkin House Book Prize: ‘The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher and the End of the Cold War'” – Moscow Times

Britain, UK, United Kingdom, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Bookcase file photo, adapted from image at nlm.nih.gov

The 9th Pushkin House Book Prize was awarded to Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, for “The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher and the End of the Cold War,” published by Oxford University Press.

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‘I Was Always Afraid Of Getting Caught’: Former Inmate Who Leaked Russian Prison-Torture Videos Speaks Out

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

А former Russian inmate who leaked a massive cache of videos showing evidence of rampant torture in Russian prisons said he believes prison guards were prone to using sexual assault against their victims “because it is the cruelest” […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Evgeny Dobrenko’s ‘Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics’ Recasts 20th Century History” – Moscow Times

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Phot of Attlee, Truman, Stalin at Potsdam, adapted from image at osti.gov

Dobrenko, a professor at the U.K.’s Sheffield University … argues [that] Stalin’s twilight years — which see the rise of cultural puritanism, state-sanctioned anti-Semitism and the nascent Cold War — set the cultural frames of reference on which the Soviet Union, and eventually Russia, continue to operate […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Catherine Belton’s “Putin’s People” is Essential Reading: ‘How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West.'” – Moscow Times

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Emily Couch – Oct. 17, 2021) The path taken by Catherine Belton’s “Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West” is a well-trodden one. For those who have read Masha Gessen’s “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin,” Ben Judah’s “Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell […]

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RUSSIALINK: “‘The Human Factor’ Shines New Light on Recent History; Author Archie Brown’s book expands our understanding of one of history’s key periods” – Moscow Times

Britain, UK, United Kingdom, History, Soviet Union, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
File Photo of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan at Table Signing Documents

How important was the true-believing communist son of Stavropol peasants, the actor son of a Midwestern traveling salesman, or the staid, provincial daughter of a Lincolnshire shopkeeper? […]

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Russian Political Elite Seeks to Retain Post-Stalin Consensus while ‘Correcting Mistakes’ of Soviet Regime, Luzin Says

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Kremlin and River

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Sept. 24, 2021) The Russian elite does not have an explicit ideology but it does have a shared set of beliefs that guide its actions, an ideology that has “grown out of political practice rather than from any philosophy,” Pavel Luzin says. But that does not make it any less influential. Indeed, […]

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Putin’s Perestroika, One Driven Like Gorbachev’s by a Desire to Revive a Stagnating System, Path to Its Destruction, Inozemtsev Says

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Vladimir Putin at Podium with United Russia Logo, Gesturing

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Sept. 8, 2021) Vladislav Inozemtsev, who has long argued that the Putin system is likely to remain stable for at least another decade, now says that the Kremlin is acting in ways that point to an attempt to fundamentally restructure the Russian political system before the 2024 presidential vote. And such a […]

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30 Years After End of Soviet Union, Its Main Lesson for Russia Remains ‘Reform or Else’

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Tower and Building Inside Kremlin

Thirty years after the failed August 1991 coup in the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the country four months later, it is hard to avoid asking: What led to the demise of that superpower and are the same factors relevant for its successor, today’s Russia?

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Russians ‘Long Not for the USSR but for a Normal Life Not Dominated by Machines and Money,’ Khotinenko Says

Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, History, Soviet Union, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Aug. 28, 2021) Many think that Russians long for the Soviet system as a whole, Vladimir Khotinenko says; but in fact, they are longing for a normal life, one in which human beings rather than money and machines are in control, as all too many of them are convinced is the case […]

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RUSSIALINK: “‘It Was All for Nothing’: Russia Marks August Coup With Regret, Indifference” – Moscow Times

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
CIA Map of USSR Administrative Divisions, adapted from image at loc.gov

Thirty years on, The Moscow Times spoke to surviving participants in the events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new Russia. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Felix Light – Aug. 18, 2021) In the center of Moscow, hidden behind two lanes of heaving traffic on the New Arbat commercial thoroughfare, stands a […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Russia’s democratic development is the only correct path – Gorbachev” – Interfax

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
CIA Map of USSR Administrative Divisions, adapted from image at loc.gov

MOSCOW. Aug 18 (Interfax) – Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev blames the organizers of the coup attempt of August 1991 and the signatories to the Belavezha agreements for the collapse of the Soviet Union, calls for defending the principles of democracy, and believes that Russia can develop and solve any problems only on a democratic path. “I believe that the […]

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Nostalgia for Soviet Times Doesn’t Extend Beyond Elites to Most Russians, Especially Those under 35, Makarkin Says

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, July 23, 2021) Russians of a certain age and status are delighted to see American defeats much as their Soviet predecessors were to see them a generation or more ago; but even these attitudes have less to do with nostalgia than with a desire for revenge against the United States and the […]

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1996 Russian Elections Made a Putin Inevitable, von Eggert Says

History, Soviet Union, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin

(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, June 2, 2021) Twenty-five years ago, Russia had its last presidential election in which the outcome was not ordained. But after Boris Yeltsin’s orchestrated victory, Konstantin von Eggert says, the country entered yet another non-democratic era in which the rise of someone like Vladimir Putin was inevitable. In that sense, the independent […]

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In Memoriam: Professor R.W. (Bob) Davies 1925-2021

History, Soviet Union, In Memoriam
Lit Candle with Reflection and Dark Background

From: On Behalf Of Michael Berry Sent: 16 April 2021 18:32 Subject: Professor R.W. (Bob) Davies 1925-2021 I am sorry to have to report that Professor R.W. (Bob) Davies the eminent economic historian of the USSR and director of CREES at the University of Birmingham for many years died earlier this week. His knowledge and wisdom will be missed by […]

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Image of Sakharov, Once the Conscience of the Nation, an Increasingly Blurred Figure for Russians, Lev Gudkov Says

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, In Memoriam, Nuclear, Missile Defense
Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

The month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Academician Andrey Sakharov who developed the hydrogen bomb … then became the leading spokesman for humanism and democracy against the Soviet regime […]

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The Inconvenient Sakharov: His legacy is a moral challenge to the Kremlin, to Western elites and to many of Russia’s oppositionists

History, Soviet Union, Human Rights, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Andrei Sakharov file photo, adapted from image at Russian-speaking Community Council facebook event page

Subject: THE INCONVENIENT SAKHAROV Date: Thu, 20 May 2021 From: DDGlinski <DDGlinski@alumni.harvard.edu> THE INCONVENIENT SAKHAROV His legacy is a moral challenge to the Kremlin, to Western elites and to many of Russia’s oppositionists by Dmitri Glinski Dmitri Daniel Glinski, Ph.D., a member of the council of the Democratic Russia Movement in the early 1990s and of Russia’s Constitutional Consultative Assembly […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s Prevarications; The Kremlin is embarked on a campaign of official deceit to shore up its repression” – The Times (UK)

History, Soviet Union, JRL NewsBlog, NATO, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Kremlin and River

“A regime whose legitimacy depends on lies will inevitably turn to repression …. the habit of … Putin’s rule. …. [H]is regime [also] has engaged in a host of hostile, not defensive, actions against … neighbours and … western democracies. … [And] Putin has defended the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact … even [making] the preposterous claim that Poland started the Second […]

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