In this book Anthony Heywood reassesses Bolshevik attitudes toward economic modernization and foreign economic relations during the early Soviet period. Based on hitherto unused Russian and Western archives, the book examines an extraordinary decision made in March 1920 to import vast quantities of railway equipment in order to achieve rapid economic modernization. This is the first detailed case study of the government's import policy, and provides readers with a new perspective on Soviet economic development, revealing the scale of Bolshevik business dealings with the capitalist West...

Russian Rightists and the Revolution of 1905 examines the emergence of right-wing organizations in Russia during the political crisis of 1905SH1907. In this comprehensive study of rightist activity throughout the country, Professor Rawson demonstrates how the rightists attempted to resolve the impasse between autocracy and constitutionalism that Russia had reached by the end of 1905. He concludes that the rightist organizations mobilized a substantial segment of public sentiment and helped induce the autocracy to reassert its authority.

This book examines the ability of the tsarist government and Russian industrialists to respond to the multiple challenges of war, revolution, political reform, international diplomacy and rearmament in the early twentieth century. Using Russian archive materials, Peter Gatrell analyzes the process and outcome of decision-making by government and business in the key sphere of defense, and makes an important contribution to the literature on the capacity of the old regime to fend off challenges to its authority at home and its prestige abroad.

In this book Graeme Gill traces the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The first book to follow the debates in the party over the implications of Gorbachev's reforms and how the party should respond to them, this study is also an in-depth analysis of the institutional dynamics of a party under pressure, showing how Gorbachev's reforms and the new political forces that grew up in their wake created disunity and fragmentation that ultimately led to the collapse of the most powerful single-party state in...

British-Polish relations during the Second World War were dogged by the fact that Polish demands on the Soviet Union threatened Soviet relations with Britain and the United States, and Soviet participation in the war. In this book Anita Prazmowska relates British policies and war-time strategy to Polish expectations and policies. She describes a tragic situation where Polish soldiers were trapped between the unrealistic plans of their government and the harsh realities of a war that they fought for Britain with no prospect of a satisfactory outcome for them or their country.

Russian Rightists and the Revolution of 1905 examines the emergence of right-wing organizations in Russia during the political crisis of 1905SH1907. In this comprehensive study of rightist activity throughout the country, Professor Rawson demonstrates how the rightists attempted to resolve the impasse between autocracy and constitutionalism that Russia had reached by the end of 1905. He concludes that the rightist organizations mobilized a substantial segment of public sentiment and helped induce the autocracy to reassert its authority.

This book argues that the foreign policy of any country is heavily influenced by national identity. This is especially the case in East-Central Europe where political institutions are weak, and social coherence remains subject to the vagaries of the concept of nationhood. Ilya Prizel's study examines the history and politics of Russia, Poland and Ukraine, and will be of interest to students of nationalism, as well as foreign policy and politics in East-Central Europe.

This text is based on the premise that the foreign policy of any country is influenced by a society's evolving notions of itself. Applying his analysis to Russia, Poland and Ukraine, the author argues that national identity is an ever-changing concept, influenced by internal and external events, and by the manipulation of a polity's collective memory. The interaction of the narrative of a society and its foreign policy is therefore paramount, he maintains, going on to emphasize that this is especially the case in East-Central Europe, where political institutions are weak, and social coherence...

This is a book about the steppe frontier land on the border of Ukraine and Russia. A little-known former Cossack land, the Donbas remained a haven for fugitives, providing freedom to whoever needed it. As a result, Stalin's Terror was extraordinarily harsh in the Donbas. Drawing on much new information from formerly closed archives in Ukraine and Russia, the book paints a detailed yet panoramic picture of the tumultuous history of the Donbas and analyzes critical events in modern Ukrainian and Russian history from a regional perspective.

This book examines the little-known phenomenon of blat--the use of informal contacts and personal networks to obtain goods and services under the rationing that pervaded Soviet Russia. Alena Ledeneva analyzes the historical, socioeconomic and cultural aspects of blat, and explores its implications for post-Soviet Russia. The political and economic reforms introduced since the collapse of the Soviet Union have radically affected everyday practices, but an understanding of blat remains crucial for interpreting the social, economic and criminal problems that affect the development of a market...