Books in the BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies series

Discusses the development of mass media in Russia since the end of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This book analyzes the impact of the Putin presidency, including the ways in which the media have constructed Putin's image in order to consolidate his power and their role in securing his election victories in 2000 and 2004.

Explores the phenomenon of glamour and celebrity in contemporary Russian culture, ranging across media forms, disciplinary boundaries and modes of inquiry, with particular emphasis on the media personality.

The end of communism and accession to the European Union have had a huge impact on Poland. This book provides an overall assessment of the post-1989 transformation in Poland, covering economic transformation; the heritage of the past and national identity; and regional and political developments before and after EU accession.

The book provides a deep understanding of the changing structures and practices of national and transnational Russian media and how they condition the boundaries of freedom of expression in Russia today.Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, this book examines the current state of the freedom of speech and media freedom in Russia.

Examines democracy in Eastern Europe, focusing on the influence of literary and historical myths in communist Eastern Europe and Russia. This book shows how democracy takes into account cultural factors of shared consciousness whereby mythological constructions of reality become a force in the formation of political conceptions of authority.

Examines the development of big business in Russia since the early 1990s, explaining how post-Soviet enterprises - many of which made little sense as business units - were restructured into functional firms. This title includes case studies of three leading companies: Yukos Oil Company, Siberian (Russian) Aluminium and Norilsk Nickel.

A study of local politics in Russia that shows that the key reforms of local government, and the struggle to forge viable grassroots democracies have been inextricably linked to the wider struggle for power between the regions and the Kremlin, and to the specific nature of Russia's highly politicized and negotiated form of asymmetrical federalism.

In the wake of the Crimean War, the Russian autocracy renovated its most basic social, political and economic systems by emancipating some 23 million privately-owned serfs. This book examines the emancipation of the serfs, focusing on the mechanisms used to enact the reforms and the implications for Russian politics and society in the long term.

Examines the process whereby the Communist Party lost power in Poland, setting out the sequence of events, and examining the strategies of the political groupings prior to the election of June 1989. This book shows that on many occasions, PZPR decision-makers ignored expert advice, and many Round Table bargains went against the party's interests.

Addresses fundamental issues about the last decades of Tsarist Russia. This book focuses on successive outbreaks of cholera in the city of Saratov on the Volga. It explains why a medical and social disaster that had long since been overcome in other parts of Europe continued much later in Russia.

Analyses the complex geopolitical relationship between the Russian Federation and the European Union. This book examines how regional actors have adapted to the challenges of internal and external integration, and what strategies they have developed to meet the pressures coming across the border and from the federal centre.

Examines contemporary developments in Russian politics, how they impact on Russia's Muslim communities, how these communities are helping to shape the Russian state, and what insights this provides to the nature and identity of the Russian state both in its inward and outward projection.

Examines the phenomenon of the Russian intelligentsia. This book focuses on one of the most important and influential groups of Russian intellectuals - the 1960s generation or 'Sixtiers' - who devoted their lives to defending 'socialism with a human face', authored "Perestroika", and were subsequently demonized when the reforms failed.

This volume examines folk music and dance revival movements in Russia, exploring why this folk culture has come to represent Russia, how it has been approached and produced, and why memory and tradition, in these particular forms, have taken on particular significance in different periods.

Based on research in previously unexplored sources, including the party archives, this book provides information on the disintegration of the Soviet communist party, in 1991 and the preceding years. It argues that, contrary to prevailing views, the party was reformable in late Soviet times, but that attempts to reform it failed.

Examines the importance of film adaptations of literature in Russian cinema, especially during the Soviet period when the cinema was accorded a vital role in imposing the authority of the communist regime on public consciousness.

The countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have attempted to address the numerous human rights abuses that characterized the decades of communist rule. This book examines the main processes of transitional justice that permitted societies in those countries to come to terms with their recent past.

Addressing the issues involved and their origins in Imperial legal thought, this book examines theories of crime and the criminal, together with various prescriptions for punishment respecting personal inviolability. It also throws light on aspects of Russian politics, society and mentality in two turbulent periods of Russian history.

Examines the relationship between the Russian Communist Party and working class in the years after the revolution and civil war. This book shows that the working class was politically expropriated by the Bolshevik party, as democratic bodies such as soviets and factory committees were deprived of decision-making power.

Examines television culture in Russia under the government of Vladimir Putin. This book is suitable for those who wish to understand contemporary Russian society.

What kind of a player is Russia in the field of security? What is the essence of its security policy? What are the sources, capabilities and priorities of its security policy? Answering such questions, this book examines the re-emergence of Russia as an outward-looking state.

The Russo-Chechen conflict has been the bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War. Providing an overview of the war and the issues connected with it, this book examines the origins of the conflict and traces how both sides were dragged inexorably into war in the early 1990s. It discusses the two wars and the intervening truce.

Examines the transformation of the state in Central and Eastern Europe since the end of communism and adoption of market oriented reform in the early 1990s, exploring the impact of globalization and economic liberalization on the region's states, societies and political economy.

Argues that contrary to contemporary Lithuanian nationalist rhetoric - Lithuanian nationalism was modern and socially constructed in the period from the emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in the late nineteenth century to the birth of an independent state in 1918.

Examines federalism and regional and local politics in Russia. This book discusses how Vladimir Putin has re-asserted the power of the centre in Russia, and tightened the federal government's control of the regions. It shows how, contrary to his rhetoric about developing Russia as a free and democratic state, authoritarianism has been extended.