Russia: What Everyone Needs to KnowR

Today's Russia, also known as the Russian Federation, is often viewed as less powerful than the Soviet Union of the past. When stacked against other major nations in the present, however, the new Russia is a formidable if flawed player. Russia: What Everyone Needs to Know® provides fundamental information about the origins, evolution, and current affairs of the Russian state and society. The story begins with Russia's geographic endowment, proceeds through its experiences as a kingdom and empire, and continues through the USSR's three-quarters of a century, and finally the shocking breakup of that regime a generation ago. Chapters on the failed attempt to reform Communism under Mikhail Gorbachev, the halting steps toward democratization under Boris Yeltsin, and the entrenchment of central controls under Vladimir Putin bring the reader into the contemporary scene and to headline-grabbing events such as Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and its military intervention in Syria. Drawing on trends within Russia and on ratings and rankings compiled by international organizations, Colton discusses the challenges facing the country--ranging from economic recession to demographic stress, political stagnation, and overextension in foreign policy--and to the realistic options for coping with them. The book shows that, although Russia is not imprisoned by its history, it is heavily influenced by it. Colton illustrates Russia's greatest strength and, ironically, its greatest weakness: the ability of its people to adapt themselves to difficult circumstances beyond their immediate control. Russia, as Putin has asserted, will not soon be a second edition of the United States or Britain. But, Colton shows, there are ways in which it could become a better version of itself.

History

Colton, Timothy J.

Russia

Oxford University Press

The failed coup by Communist hardliners in Moscow in August 1991 marked the inevitable disintegration of the Soviet Union. No single event since the end of World War II will have more far-reaching effects.
The power struggles now underway in the fifteen successor republics raise the specter of chaos in Eastern Europe and Southern Asia. Can these new nations manage their deepening economic crisis? What political form will the new republics take, and can the changes be accomplished peacefully. What dangers and problems does the Soviet Union's passage present to the outside world?
This collection od original essays, sponsored by the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and the American Assembly, is the first comprehensive assessment of the challenges facing the Soviet Union's successor republics. In five concise chapters, leading American scholars of Soviet affairs examine the economics, politics, and foreign policy of the new nations. The future role of the Soviet military machine―really another nation among the nations―is also discussed. The authors' conclusions lend ground for a tempered optimism about the future of the former USSR.

After the Soviet Union: From Empire to Nations (American Assembly Series)

Legvold, Robert

Europe

W.W.Norton&Company

Even after his death in April 2007, Boris Yeltsin remains the most controversial figure in recent Russian history. Although Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the decline of the Communist party and the withdrawal of Soviet control over eastern Europe, it was Yeltsin-Russia's first elected president-who buried the Soviet Union itself. Upon taking office, Yeltsin quickly embarked on a sweeping makeover of newly democratic Russia, beginning with a program of excruciatingly painful market reforms that earned him wide acclaim in the West and deep recrimination from many Russian citizens. In this, the first biography of Yeltsin's entire life, Soviet scholar Timothy Colton traces Yeltsin's development from a peasant boy in the Urals to a Communist party apparatchik, and then ultimately to a nemesis of the Soviet order. Based on unprecedented interviews with Yeltsin himself as well as scores of other Soviet officials, journalists, and businessmen, Colton explains how and why Yeltsin broke with single-party rule and launched his drive to replace it with democracy. Yeltsin's colossal attempt to bring democracy to Russia remains one of the great, unfinished stories of our time. As anti-Western policies and rhetoric resurface in Putin's increasingly bellicose Russia, Yeltsin offers essential insights into the past, present, and future of this vast and troubled nation.

Yeltsin: A Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Basic Books

In this penetrating biography, Timothy J. Colton—one of the English-speaking world's foremost experts on Russia—traces the life and struggles of Russia's first popularly elected president, Boris Yeltsin. Colton vividly narrates the life of a man who rose from agrarian roots to forge a new destiny for Russia and whose attempt at bringing democracy to his countrymen remains one of the great unfinished stories of our time. Yeltsin provides a refreshing portrait of this controversial yet critical leader who buried the Soviet Union and birthed its troubled heir.

Historical

Subjects obey. Citizens choose. Transitional Citizens looks at the newly empowered citizens of Russia's protodemocracy facing choices at the ballot box that just a few years ago, under dictatorial rule, they could not have dreamt of.
The stakes in post-Soviet elections are extraordinary. While in the West politicians argue over refinements to social systems in basically good working order, in the Russian Federation they address graver concerns--dysfunctional institutions, individual freedom, nationhood, property rights, provision of the basic necessities of life in an unparalleled economic downswing. The idiom of Russian campaigns is that of apocalypse and mutual demonization. This might give an impression of political chaos. However, as Timothy Colton finds, voting in transitional Russia is highly patterned. Despite their unfamiliarity with democracy, subjects-turned-citizens learn about their electoral options from peers and the mass media and make choices that manifest a purposiveness that will surprise many readers.
Colton reveals that post-Communist voting is not driven by a single explanatory factor such as ethnicity, charismatic leadership, or financial concerns, but rather by multiple causes interacting in complex ways. He gives us the most sophisticated and insightful account yet of the citizens of the new Russia.

Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia

Harvard University Press

Subjects obey. Citizens choose. Transitional Citizens looks at the newly empowered citizens of Russia's protodemocracy facing choices at the ballot box that just a few years ago, under dictatorial rule, they could not have dreamt of. 
 The stakes in post-Soviet elections are extraordinary. While in the West politicians argue over refinements to social systems in basically good working order, in the Russian Federation they address graver concerns--dysfunctional institutions, individual freedom, nationhood, property rights, provision of the basic necessities of life in an unparalleled economic downswing. The idiom of Russian campaigns is that of apocalypse and mutual demonization. This might give an impression of political chaos. However, as Timothy Colton finds, voting in transitional Russia is highly patterned. Despite their unfamiliarity with democracy, subjects-turned-citizens learn about their electoral options from peers and the mass media and make choices that manifest a purposiveness that will surprise many readers. 
 Colton reveals that post-Communist voting is not driven by a single explanatory factor such as ethnicity, charismatic leadership, or financial concerns, but rather by multiple causes interacting in complex ways. He gives us the most sophisticated and insightful account yet of the citizens of the new Russia.

For six decade the Soviet system has been immune to military rebellion and takeover, which often characterizes modernizing countries. How can we explain the stability of Soviet military politics, asks Timothy Colton in his compelling interpretation of civil-military relations in the Soviet Union. 
 Hitherto most western scholars have posited a basic dichotomy of interests between the Soviet army and the Communist party. They view the two institutions as conflictprone, with civilian supremacy depending primarily upon the party's control of officers through its organs within the military establishment. Colton challenges this thesis and argues that the military party organs have come to possess few of the attributes of an effective controlling device, and that the commissars and their heirs have operated as allies rather than adversaries of the military commanders. In explaining the extraordinary stability in army-party relations in terms of overlapping interests rather than controlling mechanisms, Colton offers a major case study and a new model to students of comparative military politics.

Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics

Military

Once the hub of the tsarist state, later Brezhnev's "model Communist city"--home of the Kremlin, Red Square, and St. Basil's Cathedral-- is for many the quintessence of everything Russian. Timothy Colton's sweeping biography of this city at the center of Soviet and post-Soviet life reveals what such a position has meant to Moscow and ultimately to Russia itself.

Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Russian Research Center Studies, 88)

For six decade the Soviet system has been immune to military rebellion and takeover, which often characterizes modernizing countries. How can we explain the stability of Soviet military politics, asks Timothy Colton in his compelling interpretation of civil-military relations in the Soviet Union. Hitherto most western scholars have posited a basic dichotomy of interests between the Soviet army and the Communist party. They view the two institutions as conflictprone, with civilian supremacy depending primarily upon the party's control of officers through its organs within the military establishment. Colton challenges this thesis and argues that the military party organs have come to possess few of the attributes of an effective controlling device, and that the commissars and their heirs have operated as allies rather than adversaries of the military commanders. In explaining the extraordinary stability in army-party relations in terms of overlapping interests rather than controlling mechanisms, Colton offers a major case study and a new model to students of comparative military politics.

Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics (Russian Research Center Studies, 79)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Colton, Timothy J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Colton, Timothy J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Colton, Timothy J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Russia: What Everyone Needs to KnowR

Russia: What Everyone Needs to KnowR

After the Soviet Union: From Empire to Nations (American Assembly Series)

Yeltsin: A Life

Yeltsin: A Life

Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia

Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia

Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics

Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Russian Research Center Studies, 88)

Commissars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics (Russian Research Center Studies, 79)