Most recent research seeks to explain contemporary changes in Russia by analysing the decisions of Russian leaders, oligarchs, and politicians based in Moscow. This book examines another Russia, one of ordinary people changing their environment and taking opportunities to provoke societal changes in small towns and the countryside. Russia is a resource rich society, and the country s strategy and institutional structure is built on the most valuable of these resources: oil and gas. Analysing the implications of this situation on the local level, this book offers chapters on resource use,...

One of the main ideas behind this book was to trace continuities from the Soviet time to post-Soviet Russia. There are many similarities between Russia and Ukraine, indicating such a continuation. Russia and Ukraine had a lot in common in terms of culture, language and history, partly also because of their common origin. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, the two independent countries chose different routes of development. This makes it possible to distinguish between the effects of politics/reforms on the one hand, and the impacts from the Soviet system on the other....