Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Maps, Figures, Tables and Boxes viii
Acknowledgements to the Second Edition x
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 The Historical Context 9
Russia before 1917 10
The Soviet period, 1917-91 15
From communism to contemporary Russia 25
2 Land and People 34
The physical setting 39
The environment 42
Geostrategic location 45
The peoples of Russia 48
The Chechen conflict 51
Religion in Russia 53
Who are the Russians? Culture and traditions 57
3 Social Structure and Social Policy 62
Standards of living 64
Demographics and health policy 72
Health policy and the national projects 79
Judicial policy 80
Education 86
4 Politics and Government 90
The 1993 Constitution 94
President versus parliament, 1992-3 95
Executive 98
Legislature 103
Power relations between president, prime minister and parliament 104
Contemporary Russia and democracy 107
Ideas in Russian politics - political forces in Russia today 113
The Communists and the Agrarians 116
The Nationalists 118
The Liberals 119
5 The Economy 121
The Soviet planning system 123
Economic decline 124
Economic reform, 1992-8 127
The crash of 1998 133
Economic progress, 1999-2008 135
Resource dependence and the need to diversify 140
The legal environment and state intervention 141
Engagement in the global economy 143
Conclusion 146
6 Rights, Freedoms and Civil Society 148
The Soviet legacy 149
Constitutional rights in contemporary Russia 150
Freedom of information 152
Freedom of worship 160
Wider human rights and civil society issues 163
A weak state and securitization 166
Civil society in Russia 168
7 Ideas and Culture 171
The Russian Idea 171
Death and martial culture 174
Russian self-conceptualization-byt, sobornost and literary models 177
Putin's political narrative and the use of history 178
Ideology 184
Culture and contemporary reality 186
Literature 188
Film 191
Music 192
Sport 193
8 Russia and the World 195
Geopolitics and echoes of empire 197
Russia's 'sphere of influence' and the Commonwealth of Independent States 199
Russia, the West and beyond 204
Conclusion 216
9 Conclusion 217
Recommended Reading 222
Russia Online in English 225
Bibliography 227
Index 234
