DOCSLIB.ORG

The Restoration of Capitalism in the Soviet Union

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Restoration of Capitalism in the Soviet Union THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION W. B. Bland. THE RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM IN THE SOVIET UNION By W. B. Bland. Second Edition, 1995; First published Wembley 1980. FOREWORD This book is an analysis of the economic system which was developed in the USSR after the "economic reforms" of 1965-66 - an analysis made on the basis of a mass of evidence taken almost exclusively from official Soviet economic journals. Taking into account the virtual abolition of centralised economic planning, the introduction of profit as the regulator of production, the vesting of effective ownership and "hiring and firing" rights in industrial management, and the inequitable distribution of enterprise profit between managerial and shop floor personnel, the author reached the conclusion - as the title indicates - that by the 1970s the soviet economy had become essentially a restored capitalist system masquerading under red flags which are no longer appropriate. Contents INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1: The Abolition of Centralised Economic Planning ............................................................................................................... 10 3: The "Socialist Market" ............................................................................................................................................................................ 24 4: Payment for Production Assets .............................................................................................................................................................. 30 5: Credit and Interest ................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 6: Ownership of the Means of Production ................................................................................................................................................. 41 7: The New Soviet Capitalist ....................................................................................................................................................................... 45 8: Freedom to Hire and Fire ....................................................................................................................................................................... 46 9: The Primitive Accumulation of Capital ................................................................................................................................................... 49 11: The Value of Labour Power .................................................................................................................................................................. 50 12: The Price of Labour Power ................................................................................................................................................................... 52 Restoration of Capitalism in Soviet Union – Bill Bland, Page 2 13: Managerial Salaries .............................................................................................................................................................................. 57 14: "Price Control" ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 59 15: The Retention of Profit by the Enterprise ............................................................................................................................................ 65 16: "Economic Incentives" ......................................................................................................................................................................... 66 17: "Socialist Profit" ................................................................................................................................................................................... 67 18: The Distribution of "Socialist Profit" .................................................................................................................................................... 72 19: "Divide and Rule" ................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 20: Anti-Semitism ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 78 21: Corporatism ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 79 22: The Social Services ............................................................................................................................................................................... 81 23: Environmental Pollution ....................................................................................................................................................................... 86 24: "Moral Stimuli" ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 88 25: Economic Coercion ............................................................................................................................................................................... 93 26: National Discrimination ........................................................................................................................................................................ 94 27: "The International Division of Labour" ................................................................................................................................................. 99 28: Investment ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 102 30: The Concentration and Centralisation of Capital ............................................................................................................................... 109 31: Soviet Monopoly Capitalism ............................................................................................................................................................... 114 32: A "Superfluity of Capital" ................................................................................................................................................................... 118 33: The Exploitation of the Working Class ................................................................................................................................................ 119 34: The Market Problem .......................................................................................................................................................................... 123 35: The Class Structure of Contemporary Soviet Society ......................................................................................................................... 125 36: The Role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ....................................................................................................................... 126 37: The Character of the Soviet State....................................................................................................................................................... 127 38: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 130 INTRODUCTION After the Russian Revolution of November 1917, the official ideology of what became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was Marxism-Leninism. According to Marxism-Leninism, a capitalist society is one in which 1) the means of production -- factories, land, etc., -- are owned by individuals or corporate groups of individuals called capitalists; 2) this class of capitalists holds political power by controlling the state apparatus; 3) production is regulated by the profit motive; and 4) exploitation occurs, in that capitalists live, partly or wholly, on the labour of others, i.e., of their employed workers. Restoration of Capitalism in Soviet Union – Bill Bland, Page 3 On the other hand, according to Marxism-Leninism a socialist society is one in which 1) the means of production are owned collectively by the workers; 2) this class of workers holds political power by controlling the state apparatus; 3) production is planned by the state; and 4) exploitation -- the process of living partly or wholly on the labour of others -- has been eliminated. On the basis of these definitions, Marxist-Leninists describe the society which was constructed in the Soviet Union in the period following the revolution as a socialist society. In the years which followed the revolution, the political struggle to prevent the construction of a socialist society and, when such a society had been built, to bring about the restoration of a capitalist society, may
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Federalism and the Soviet Constitution of 1977: Commonwealth Perspectives
    Washington Law Review Volume 55 Number 3 6-1-1980 Federalism and the Soviet Constitution of 1977: Commonwealth Perspectives William C. Hodge Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons Recommended Citation William C. Hodge, Federalism and the Soviet Constitution of 1977: Commonwealth Perspectives, 55 Wash. L. Rev. 505 (1980). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol55/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington Law Review by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FEDERALISM AND THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION OF 1977: COMMONWEALTH PERSPECTIVES William C. Hodge* INTRODUCTION I. LEGAL NORMS AND ARBITRARY POWER IN THE 1977 CONSTITUTION: AN OVERVIEW OF SOVIET CONSTITUTIONALISM .................... 507 A. Soviet Constitutionalismand the Evolution of Socialist Society ....... 507 B. Rhetoric and Ideology .............................. 512 C. The Role of the Communist Party (CPSU) ............... 513 D. IndividualRights ........ .................... 517 II. FEDERALISM .................................... 519 A. The Characteristicsof Federalism................... 520 B. The Model of Soviet Federalism ................... 523 C. The Validity ofSoviet Federalism...... ................... 527 1. Marxist-Leninist Theory ....... ...................... 527 2. The Vocabulary of Soviet
    [Show full text]
  • Number 32 the Second Currency in the Soviet Union: on the Use of Checks in "Valuta-Rubles" by Soviet Citizens
    NUMBER 32 THE SECOND CURRENCY IN THE SOVIET UNION: ON THE USE OF CHECKS IN "VALUTA-RUBLES" BY SOVIET CITIZENS by Dietrich Andre Loeber Fellow, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies COLLOQUIUM April 18, 1978 ,. Preliminary draft. Not to be quoted or cited without the author's permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page # I. The Question Posed 1 II. How the Second Currency System Works 2 1. Rubles and Valuta-Rubles 2 2. Valuta-Checks 2 3. Administration of the Valuta-Check System 3 4. Persons Entitled to Use the Valuta-Check System 4 5. Where do Valuta-Checks Circulate 6 6. What Can be Bought for Valuta-Checks 7 7. And at What Prices 8 8. How Long a Second Currency Has Been Used 8 III. Enjoying the Advantages: The Economic Side 10 IV. Facing up to Reality in the Statutes: Legal Aspects 11 V. Uneasy Compromise: Ideological Implications 12 VI. Control of the Consequences: The Socio-Political Dimension 14 Appendix 1-3 Terms Used Explained on Page Val uta-Check 3 Valuta-Ruble 2 Val uta-Store 3 © D.~A~ Loeber 1978 THE SECOND CURRENCY IN THE SOVIET UNION: ON THE USE OF CHECKS IN "VALUTA-RUBLES" BY SOVIET CITIZENS by Dietrich Andre Loeber Fellow, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies I. THE QUESTION POSED The title of this paper may seem provocative. We are used to thinking that there is just one currency in the Soviet Union - the ruble. I thought so myself until I spent my sabbatical in ~1oscow last year. There I saw that a second currency in fact circulates in the USSR.
    [Show full text]
  • Revolution in Real Time: the Russian Provisional Government, 1917
    ODUMUNC 2020 Crisis Brief Revolution in Real Time: The Russian Provisional Government, 1917 ODU Model United Nations Society Introduction seventy-four years later. The legacy of the Russian Revolution continues to be keenly felt The Russian Revolution began on 8 March 1917 to this day. with a series of public protests in Petrograd, then the Winter Capital of Russia. These protests But could it have gone differently? Historians lasted for eight days and eventually resulted in emphasize the contingency of events. Although the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the rule of history often seems inventible afterwards, it Tsar Nicholas II. The number of killed and always was anything but certain. Changes in injured in clashes with the police and policy choices, in the outcome of events, government troops in the initial uprising in different players and different accidents, lead to Petrograd is estimated around 1,300 people. surprising outcomes. Something like the Russian Revolution was extremely likely in 1917—the The collapse of the Romanov dynasty ushered a Romanov Dynasty was unable to cope with the tumultuous and violent series of events, enormous stresses facing the country—but the culminating in the Bolshevik Party’s seizure of revolution itself could have ended very control in November 1917 and creation of the differently. Soviet Union. The revolution saw some of the most dramatic and dangerous political events the Major questions surround the Provisional world has ever known. It would affect much Government that struggled to manage the chaos more than Russia and the ethnic republics Russia after the Tsar’s abdication.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Handbook
    SL12 Page 1 of 29 UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF SLAVONIC STUDIES PAPER SL12: SOCIALIST RUSSIA 1917-1991 HANDBOOK Daria Mattingly [email protected] SL12 Page 2 of 29 INTRODUCTION COURSE AIMS The course is designed to provide you with a thorough grounding in and advanced understanding of Russia’s social, political and economic history in the period under review and to prepare you for the exam, all the while fostering in you deep interest in Soviet history. BEFORE THE COURSE BEGINS Familiarise yourself with the general progression of Soviet history by reading through one or more of the following: Applebaum, A. Red Famine. Stalin's War on Ukraine (2017) Figes, Orlando Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 (2014) Hobsbawm, E. J. The Age of Extremes 1914-1991 (1994) Kenez, Peter A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End (2006) Lovell, Stephen The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (2009) Suny, Ronald Grigor The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (2010) Briefing meeting: There’ll be a meeting on the Wednesday before the first teaching day of Michaelmas. Check with the departmental secretary for time and venue. It’s essential that you attend and bring this handbook with you. COURSE STRUCTURE The course comprises four elements: lectures, seminars, supervisions and reading. Lectures: you’ll have sixteen lectures, eight in Michaelmas and eight in Lent. The lectures provide an introduction to and overview of the course, but no more. It’s important to understand that the lectures alone won’t enable you to cover the course, nor will they by themselves prepare you for the exam.
    [Show full text]
  • Supreme Soviet Investigation of the 1991 Coup the Suppressed Transcripts
    Supreme Soviet Investigation of the 1991 Coup The Suppressed Transcripts: Part 3 Hearings "About the Illegal Financia) Activity of the CPSU" Editor 's Introduction At the birth of the independent Russian Federation, the country's most pro-Western reformers looked to the West to help fund economic reforms and social safety nets for those most vulnerable to the change. However, unlike the nomenklatura and party bureaucrats who remained positioned to administer huge aid infusions, these reformers were skeptical about multibillion-dollar Western loans and credits. Instead, they wanted the West to help them with a different source of money: the gold, platinum, diamonds, and billions of dollars in hard currency the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and KGB intelligence service laundered abroad in the last years of perestroika. Paradoxically, Western governments generously supplied the loans and credits, but did next to nothing to support the small band of reformers who sought the return of fortunes-estimated in the tens of billions of dollars- stolen by the Soviet leadership. Meanwhile, as some in the West have chronicled, the nomenklatura and other functionaries who remained in positions of power used the massive infusion of Western aid to enrich themselves-and impoverish the nation-further. In late 1995, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development concluded that Russian officials had stolen $45 billion in Western aid and deposited the money abroad. Radical reformers in the Russian Federation Supreme Soviet, the parliament that served until its building was destroyed on President Boris Yeltsin's orders in October 1993, were aware of this mass theft from the beginning and conducted their own investigation as part of the only public probe into the causes and circumstances of the 1991 coup attempt against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
    [Show full text]
  • Stalin's Constitution of the USSR- December 1936
    Stalin’s Constitution of the USSR Moscow, USSR December 1936 ARTICLE 1. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a socialist state of workers and peasants. ARTICLE 2. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies, which grew and attained strength as a result of the overthrow of the landlords and capitalists and the achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, constitute the political foundation of the U.S.S.R. ARTICLE 3. In the U.S.S.R. all power belongs to the working people of town and country as represented by the Soviets of Working People's Deputies. ARTICLE 4. The socialist system of economy and the socialist ownership of the means and instruments of production firmly established as a result of the abolition of the capitalist system of economy, the abrogation of private ownership of the means and instruments of production and the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, constitute' the economic foundation of the U.S.S.R. ARTICLE 5. Socialist property in the U.S.S.R. exists either in the form of state property (the possession of the whole people), or in the form of cooperative and collective-farm property (property of a collective farm or property of a cooperative association). ARTICLE 6. The land, its natural deposits, waters, forests, mills, factories, mines, rail, water and air transport, banks, post, telegraph and telephones, large state-organized agricultural enterprises (state farms, machine and tractor stations and the like) as well as municipal enterprises and the bulk of the dwelling houses in the cities and industrial localities, are state property, that is, belong to the whole people.
    [Show full text]
  • Title of Thesis: ABSTRACT CLASSIFYING BIAS
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis Directed By: Dr. David Zajic, Ph.D. Our project extends previous algorithmic approaches to finding bias in large text corpora. We used multilingual topic modeling to examine language-specific bias in the English, Spanish, and Russian versions of Wikipedia. In particular, we placed Spanish articles discussing the Cold War on a Russian-English viewpoint spectrum based on similarity in topic distribution. We then crowdsourced human annotations of Spanish Wikipedia articles for comparison to the topic model. Our hypothesis was that human annotators and topic modeling algorithms would provide correlated results for bias. However, that was not the case. Our annotators indicated that humans were more perceptive of sentiment in article text than topic distribution, which suggests that our classifier provides a different perspective on a text’s bias. CLASSIFYING BIAS IN LARGE MULTILINGUAL CORPORA VIA CROWDSOURCING AND TOPIC MODELING by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Gemstone Honors Program, University of Maryland, 2018 Advisory Committee: Dr. David Zajic, Chair Dr. Brian Butler Dr. Marine Carpuat Dr. Melanie Kill Dr. Philip Resnik Mr. Ed Summers © Copyright by Team BIASES: Brianna Caljean, Katherine Calvert, Ashley Chang, Elliot Frank, Rosana Garay Jáuregui, Geoffrey Palo, Ryan Rinker, Gareth Weakly, Nicolette Wolfrey, William Zhang 2018 Acknowledgements We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to our mentor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialism and Current Crisis of Capitalism
    providing benefits for the workers EDITORIAL who are paying into this plan." According to that law Mr. This is the last question to be Obama, it states, very, very asked of Mr. Obama: '7s the directly that: "The primary forced bankruptcy of General responsibility of the pension fund Motors and the elimination of "fiduciaries" is to run this plan tens of thousands of jobs, just solely in the interests of an arranged collection grab for participants and beneficiaries and the favored U.S. financiers that for the exclusive purpose of are calling the shots? PRESIDENT OBAMA AND THE BAIL OUT OF US AUTOMKERS This financial robbery of US and Canadian taxpayers hard- earned money is nothing more than the Greatest Auto Theft in history! Besides this unheard of Billions Robbery, it is also dumping 40,000 of the last 60,000 auto trade union jobs into the mass grave dug by Obama's appointee, James Dimon. Mr. Dimon is the CEO of J.P. Morgan and Citibank. While GM trade union workers are losing their jobs and retirement benefits, their life savings, but the GM shareholders are getting rich and most expect to get back a stunning $6 BILLION! Even under the present US Laws this is illegal! Helping Mr. Dimon is also the official Obama's appointee — This cartoon is from the Toronto Daily Star newspaper' showing Steven Rattner, Obama's "Auto the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) leadership that did not stand Czar" - the man who ordered up strongly enough during this financial robbery. Looking on is General Motors to go bankrupt.
    [Show full text]
  • State-Sponsored Violence in the Soviet Union: Skeletal Trauma and Burial Organization in a Post-World War Ii Lithuanian Sample
    STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE IN THE SOVIET UNION: SKELETAL TRAUMA AND BURIAL ORGANIZATION IN A POST-WORLD WAR II LITHUANIAN SAMPLE By Catherine Elizabeth Bird A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Anthropology- Doctor of Philosophy 2013 ABSTRACT STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE IN THE SOVIET UNION: SKELETAL TRAUMA AND BURIAL ORGANIZATION IN A POST WORLD WAR II LITHUANIAN SAMPLE By Catherine Elizabeth Bird The Stalinist period represented one of the worst eras of human rights abuse in the Soviet Union. This dissertation investigates both the victims and perpetrators of violence in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist period through a site specific and regional evaluation of burial treatment and perimortem trauma. Specifically, it compares burial treatment and perimortem trauma in a sample (n = 155) of prisoners executed in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (L.S.S.R.) by the Soviet security apparatus from 1944 to 1947, known as the Tuskulenai case. Skeletal and mortuary variables are compared both over time and between security personnel in the Tuskulenai case. However, the Tuskulenai case does not represent an isolated event. Numerous other sites of state-sponsored violence are well known. In order to understand the temporal and geographical distribution of Soviet violence, this study subsequently compares burial treatment and perimortem trauma observed in the Tuskulenai case to data published in site reports for three other cases of Soviet state-sponsored violence (Vinnytsia, Katyn, and Rainiai). This dissertation discusses state-sponsored violence in the Soviet Union in the context of social and political theory advocated by Max Weber and within a principal-agent framework.
    [Show full text]
  • The BG News April 2, 1971
    Bowling Green State University ScholarWorks@BGSU BG News (Student Newspaper) University Publications 4-2-1971 The BG News April 2, 1971 Bowling Green State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news Recommended Citation Bowling Green State University, "The BG News April 2, 1971" (1971). BG News (Student Newspaper). 2578. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/2578 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in BG News (Student Newspaper) by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@BGSU. Bell quits A.D. post; Young in By Harold Brown said, "Back in December it was a toss-up in my mind bet- mosphere. I expect to teach through athletics, not merely Sport Editor ween Bob Bell and Dick Young. Dick was strongly entertain," he said. recommended by a special screening committee at that Young, 39, received his B.A. from Ohio State in 19M and In an unexpected move, Bowling Green State University time and I was strongly impressed with his approach to the his M.A. in education, also from OSU. in 1959. He is has its second Athletic Director in 90 days- athletic program and his own personal characteristics of currently working on his doctoral degree here at the Richard A. Young, head Falcon baseball coach, was stability, integrity, and dedication to a balanced athletic University. appointed to fill the position vacated by the resignation of program in the University." He joined the Falcon coaching staff in 1959 as an Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The S.A. Institute of International Affairs to Be
    THE S.A. INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS TO BE REMOVED Africa 1979: Myths, Miracles and Mirrors LI' Peter CJ. Vale After Brehznev: Who and What? Robin Knight The Arabs in Africa: Islamic Philanthropy or Petro-Colonialism? Philip Frankel A Constellation of States: Regional Co-operation in Southern Africa Deon Geldenhuys and Denis Venter Book Review Namibia Old and New: Traditional and Modem Leaders in Ovamboland by Gerhard Totemeyer VOL 3 NO 3 DEC 1979 DIE SUID-AFRIKAAJVSE INSTITIM Wi IMTERNASEOMALE AAMGELEEPJTHEDE THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE INST1TUUTVAN INTERNASIONALE AANGELEENTHEDE THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (fountted/geslig: 1934) NATIONAL OFFICE-BEARERS/NASIONALE AMPSDRAERS CHAIRMAN/VOORSITTER Dr Leif F.geland DEPUTY CHAIRMAN/ADJUNK-VOORSITTER Gideon Rons, Sr VICE-CHAIRMEN/VISE-VOORSITTERS H.F. Oppenheimer Dr C.B. Strauss and all Chairmen of the Institute's Branches ex efficio en alle Voorsitters van die Instituut se Takke ampshalwe (Cape Town/Kaapstad, Witwatersrand, Natal, Eastern Province/Oostclike Frovinsie, Pretoria, Stelienbosch, Border/Grens, Transkei and/en SWA/Namibia) TREASUREH/TESOURIER J.C. Williams DIRECTOR/DIREKTEUR John Barratt INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BULLETIN Published by the South African Institute of Internationa] Affairs and supplied free of charge to members. Three issues per year. Subscription rate for non-members R.5,00 per annum (surface mail); R7,00 per annum (overseas airmail). Price per copy R.1,50 plus postage. Uitgegee deur die Suid-Afrikaanse Instituut van Internasionale Aangeleemhede en gratis a«n lede verskaf. Drie uitgawes per jaar. lntekengeld vir nic-lede R5.00 perjaar (landpos); R7,00 per jaar (buitelandse lugpos).
    [Show full text]
  • Lukyanov Doctrine: Conceptual Origins of Russia's Hybrid Foreign Policy—The Case of Ukraine
    Saint Louis University Law Journal Volume 64 Number 1 Internationalism and Sovereignty Article 3 (Fall 2019) 4-23-2020 Lukyanov Doctrine: Conceptual Origins of Russia’s Hybrid Foreign Policy—The Case of Ukraine. Igor Gretskiy [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Igor Gretskiy, Lukyanov Doctrine: Conceptual Origins of Russia’s Hybrid Foreign Policy—The Case of Ukraine., 64 St. Louis U. L.J. (2020). Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol64/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Saint Louis University Law Journal by an authorized editor of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact Susie Lee. SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW LUKYANOV DOCTRINE: CONCEPTUAL ORIGINS OF RUSSIA’S HYBRID FOREIGN POLICY—THE CASE OF UKRAINE. IGOR GRETSKIY* Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kremlin’s assertiveness and unpredictability on the international arena has always provoked enormous attention to its foreign policy tools and tactics. Although there was no shortage of publications on topics related to different aspects of Moscow’s foreign policy varying from non-proliferation of nuclear weapons to soft power diplomacy, Russian studies as a discipline found itself deadlocked within the limited number of old dichotomies, (e.g., West/non-West, authoritarianism/democracy, Europe/non-Europe), initially proposed to understand the logic of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy transformations.1 Furthermore, as the decision- making process in Moscow was getting further from being transparent due to the increasingly centralized character of its political system, the emergence of new theoretical frameworks with greater explanatory power was an even more difficult task.
    [Show full text]