A source for an update and overview of developments in one of the most rapidly changing regions of the world. A chapter on each country covers useful historical background, as well as current political developments and foreign policy issues, and profiles of key personalities.

Business and the State in Contemporary Russia is the most recent volume in the John M. Olin Critical Issues series, published by Westview in conjunction with Harvard's Davis Center for Russian Research. In this latest installation, contributors discuss issues as far-ranging as the dynamics of rule in contemporary Russia, the banking elite, the politics of the Russian media business, the political economy of the Russian oil and coal industries, and the causes and consequences of the August 1998 crash.

The premier source for a comprehensive update and overview of developments in the most rapidly changing region in the world.

Each edition features thematic coverage of regional, political, and economic developments.

Chapters on every country of the region cover essential historical background as well as current developments and domestic and foreign policy issues.

Supplementing the chapters are maps, data boxes, documents, and sidebars.

Peter Rutland analyzes the role played by regional and local organs of the Soviet Communist Party in economic management from 1970 to 1989. Using a range of Soviet political and economic journals, newspapers and academic publications, he examines Communist Party economic interventions in construction, energy, transport, consumer goods, and agriculture. He convincingly argues that party interventions hindered rather than assisted the search for efficiency in the Soviet economy and represent a major obstacle to the current economic reform movement.