Only several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear security issues are again at the forefront of international concern. This timely collection addresses issues of cleanup at Chernobyl and other sites of nuclear disasters, nuclear smuggling, safety concerns in the Ukrainian and Russian nuclear industries, and Ukraine's negotiations with Russia and the West regarding the transference of its nuclear weapons to Russia. Preeminent scholars in their fields, the contributors provide up-to-the-minute information and fresh insights into questions critical to the future of the former...

Belarus: From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe examines the principal effects of Soviet rule on Belarus as the prelude to a detailed analysis of the medical and social consequences of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. It places these problems into the contemporary political context and assesses the ability of the newly-independent state to deal with a disaster of such dimensions.

Certain to engender debate in the media, especially in Ukraine itself, as well as the academic community. Using a wide selection of newspapers, journals, monographs, and school textbooks from different regions of the country, the book examines the sensitive issue of the changing perspectives - often shifting 180 degrees - on several events discussed in the new narratives of the Stalin years published in the Ukraine since the late Gorbachev period until 2005. These events were pivotal to Ukrainian history in the 20th century, including the Famine of 1932-33 and Ukrainian insurgency during the...

An assessment and understandining of Belarus, this text asks: why has Belarus apparently rejected independence?; why its government rejected democracy?; has the country made any progress toward market reforms?; and what is the future for its ten million ci

The essays in this volume analyze the civil uprising known as Euromaidan that began in central Kyiv in late November 2013, when the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych opted not to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. Topics covered include the motivations and expectations of protesters, organized crime, nationalism, gender issues, mass media, the Russian language, and the impact of Euromaidan on Ukrainian politics, the EU, Russia, and Belarus. An epilogue looks at the Russian annexation of Crimea and the creation of breakaway republics in the east, leading to full-scale...

David Marples looks back at the Soviet century and examines the relationship between the Communist state and the Russian national idea. He concludes that ultimately, it was the ideal of the motherland that brought about the end of communism in Russia.

Why did the Soviet Union collapse in 1991?

The collapse of the Soviet Union has widely been seen as the result of the arms race and Cold War, and the failure of the Soviet side to keep pace with new technology. This book argues that the disintegration was mainly a result of two interrelated factors: the rise of the Soviet national republics, and the manipulation of the new Russian presidency by Boris Yeltsin in what became a direct power struggle between Yeltsin and the Soviet leader, Gorbachev.

Written in a clear and accessible manner, the book provides:

• an...

This volume highlights the problems of the environment and industry in Ukraine from 1985 to 1990. The main theme of the book is the close link between the damage to nature and the growth of political activism and patriotism in Ukraine.