Restructuring Post-Communist Russia

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the question of 'whither Russia?' has been the source of ceaseless speculation both at home and abroad. In search of answers, twelve highly qualified scholars examine the complex interplay between continuity and change that has marked developments in Russia under the leadership first of Boris Yeltsin and now of Vladimir Putin. Analsying the recent past, they also peer into the country's future. In his introduction to the volume Peter Rutland asks whether we are witnessing the gradual entrenchment of parliamentary democracy, the slow return to autocracy or mere political stagnation. Restructuring Post-Communist Russia poses the fundamental questions while providing the information and analysis needed to give the (at least, preliminary) answers.

Introduction. What comes after socialism? Peter Rutland; Part I. The Comparative Dimension: 1. What went wrong? Anatoly M. Khazanov; 2. Communist legacies and new trajectories Alexander J. Motyl; 3. Learning from post-socialism Valerie Bunce; 4. Ukraine's hollow decade Ilya Prizel; Part II. Russia in Free Fall? Key Challenges: 5. The Russian transition to the market Marshall I. Goldman; 6. Potholes on the road to a flourishing Russia Theodore H. Friedgut; 7. The search for a national identity in the Russia of Yeltsin and Putin Vera Tolz; Part III. The Russian Political System: Toward Stabilisation?: 8. The dilemmas of federalism Oksana Oracheva; 9. The evolution of the multiparty system Andrey Ryabov; 10. The elections since 1989 Nikolai V. Petrov; 11. Leaders, structural conditions and Russia's foreign policy Rajan Menon; Index.

In his introduction to the volume Peter Rutland asks whether we are witnessing the gradual entrenchment of parliamentary democracy, the slow return to autocracy or mere political stagnation. Restructuring Post-Communist Russia poses the fundamental questions while providing the information and analysis needed to give the (at least, preliminary) answers.