Books

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Humanities & Social Sciences

October 2022

Germany's Russia problem

The struggle for balance in Europe

by John Lough

The relationship between Germany and Russia is Europe's most important link with the largest country on the continent. But despite Germany's unparalleled knowledge and historical experience, its policymakers struggle to accept that Moscow's efforts to rebalance Europe at the cost of the cohesion of the EU and NATO are an attack on Germany's core interests. This book explains the scale of the challenge facing Germany in managing relations with a changing Russia. It analyses how successive German governments from 1991 to 2014 misread Russian intentions, until Angela Merkel sharply recalibrated German and EU policy towards Moscow. The book also examines what lies behind efforts to revise Merkel's bold policy shift, including attitudes inherited from the GDR and the role of Russian influence channels in Germany.

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2024

Where is Russia Heading?

by Jens Siegert

Vladimir Putin has been ruling Russia for 25 years. There is no end in sight to his dictatorship. He relies on repression at home and is waging a war of destruction against a neighbouring country. The conflict with the West has long become a systemic conflict between an illiberal-autocratic ideology and liberal-democratic principles. Nothing will change as long as Putin remains in power. Nevertheless, as far as can be ascertained under unfree conditions, the majority of the population seems to be supporting Putin. Does this mean that too many people in Russia do not want democracy or peace? Will everything remain the same after Putin? Or is there a chance that Russia will eventually take a different, more democratic path? Whatever the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia is not going to disappear. We will still have to deal with our big neighbour in the east. This makes it all the more important to focus on longer-term developments. As a recognised expert on Russian history and society, the author outlines what the post-Putin era might look like. His in-depth analysis makes it clear that Russia is partly Putin, but Putin is not everything about Russia.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

June 2023

The sea in Russian strategy

by Andrew Monaghan, Richard Connolly

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Humanities & Social Sciences

April 2022

Russian grand strategy in the era of global power competition

by Andrew Monaghan, Richard Connolly

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The Arts

February 2025

Russian Orientalism in a global context

by Maria Taroutina, Allison Leigh

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Humanities & Social Sciences

March 2005

Russian politics today

by Michael Waller, Bill Jones

This introductory text, written by an established authority on communist and post-communist politics, describes how Vladimir Putin has turned to those with backgrounds in the military and security structures to provide stability in today's Russian Federation, following the democratising reforms of Gorbachev and the ensuing instability of the Yeltsin presidency. Against the background of an increasing authoritarianism, which has restored features of the Soviet political system, it examines the attempts by social and economic groups to assert themselves against the state using embryonic democratic forms that fall far short of pluralism. The book's fourteen chapters offer an exceptionally broad coverage. It will appeal to first- and second-year students in higher education, but its deliberately accessible style will also make it attractive to sixth-form students and the general reader. ;

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History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900

June 2011

The Wanderers and Critical Realism in Nineteenth Century Russian Painting

Critical realism in nineteenth-century Russia

by David Jackson

The rise of critical realism in nineteenth-century Russia culminated in 1870 with the formation of the Wanderers, Russia's first independent artistic society. Through depictions of the harsh lives of the peasantry, the fate of political activists, Russian history, landscapes, and portraits of the nation's cultural elite, such as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, the society became synonymous with dissident sentiments. Yet its members were far from being purveyors of anti-Tsarist propaganda and their canvases reflect also a warm humanity and a fierce pride for such nationalistic themes as Russian myth and legend. Through close readings of single canvases, investigations of major themes and a multi-disciplinary integration of the Wanderers within Russian society, this book gives the first comprehensive analysis of the crucial cultural role played by one of the most successful and genuinely popular schools of art, the legacy of which comprises a fascinating panorama of life and thought in pre-revolutionary Russia.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

January 2024

Russian strategy in the Middle East and North Africa

by Derek Averre

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April 2021

Ukraine's fateful years 2013–2019

Vol. 1: The Maidan uprising in 2013/2014 Vol. 2: The annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass

by Winfried Schneider-Deters

— Comprehensive and detailled analysis of the Euromaidan and the ongoing war in Ukraine — Brussels versus Moscow, Russian aggression and geopolitical interests — China's role in a new East-West conflict The years between 2013 and 2019 were almost as significant for Ukraine as the attainment of independence in 1991, as this very independence was in danger of being lost again after the Euromaidan. The nationwide popular uprising against the regime of President Yanukovych had led to a change of power: the former parliamentary opposition formed a new government, resulting in a loss of influence for Russia. Russian agents therefore tried to bring about a "Crimea scenario", another secession in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine. The resulting "Ukraine conflict", often called a civil war, is in fact a Russian war of attrition against Ukraine. President Putin intends to resolve it on his terms in the Minsk process: through a de facto "autonomous" part of the Donbass in the Ukrainian state, independent of Kiev, as a lever for Russian political influence. Winfried Schneider- Deters, a renowned expert on Ukraine, analyses narratively and in detail the events from 2013 to 2019 and places the Russian- Ukrainian conflict in the context of the dawning "Chinese century".

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Humanities & Social Sciences

November 2024

Blitzkrieg and the Russian art of war

by Andrew Monaghan

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Literary theory

July 2014

Degeneration, decadence and disease in the Russian fin de siècle

Neurasthenia in the life and work of Leonid Andreev

by Frederick H. White

Early in the twentieth century, Russia was experiencing a decadent period of cultural degeneration just as science was developing ways to identify medical conditions which supposedly reflected the health of the entire nation. Leonid Andreev, the leading literary figure of his time, stepped into the breach of this scientific discourse with literary works about degenerates. The spirited social debates on mental illness, morality and sexual deviance which resulted from these works became part of the ongoing battle over the definition and depiction of the irrational, complicated by Andreev's own publicised bouts with neurasthenia. This book examines the concept of pathology in Russia, the influence of European medical discourse, the development of Russian psychiatry, and the role that it had in popular culture, by investigating the life and works of Andreev. It engages the emergence of psychiatry and the role that art played in the development of this objective science.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

July 2005

Late Imperial Russia

Problems and prospects

by Ian Thatcher

This volume offers a detailed examination of the stability of the late imperial regime in Russia. Students and scholars will appreciate the lively summaries of the latest scholarship in political, economic, social, cultural, and international history. Accessible yet insightful, contributions cover the historiography of complex topics such as peasants, workers, revolutionaries, foreign relations, and Nicholas II. In addition, there are original studies of some of the leading intellectuals of the time. The late imperial economy is examined through the writings of Tugan-Baranovsky. There is an account of M. N. Pokrovskii's radical interpretation of late imperial Russia's historical path of development. The state of the Russian theatre is studied through the lives of theatrical impresarios. Each chapter also highlights a unique interpretation, suggesting new lines of inquiry and research. This book will be compulsory reading for students of Russian and European history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seeking to better understand why Tsarism collapsed in 1917. ;

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Humanities & Social Sciences

June 2021

Germany's Russia problem

by John Lough, Andrew Monaghan

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Humanities & Social Sciences

October 2006

Securitising Russia

The domestic politics of Vladimir Putin

by Bettina Renz, Edwin Bacon, Julian Cooper

Securitising Russia shows the impact of twenty-first-century security concerns on the way Russia is ruled. It demonstrates how President Putin has wrestled with terrorism, immigration, media freedom, religious pluralism, and economic globalism, and argues that fears of a return to old-style authoritarianism oversimplify the complex context of contemporary Russia. The book focuses on the internal security issues common to many states in the early twenty-first-century, and places them in the particular context of Russia. Detailed analysis of the place of security in Russia's political discourse and policy-making reveals nuances often missing from overarching assessments of Russia today. To characterise the Putin regime as the 'KGB-resurgent' is to miss vital continuities, contexts, and on-going political conflicts which make up the contemporary Russian scene. Securitising Russia draws together current debates about whether Russia is a 'normal' country developing its own democratic and market structures, or a nascent authoritarian regime returning to the past. ;

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Humanities & Social Sciences

April 2024

The new politics of Russia

by Andrew Monaghan

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Humanities & Social Sciences

June 2025

Revolution in China and Russia

Reorganizing empires into nation states

by Luyang Zhou

Most scholars believe that China's nationality policy, like that of other socialist states, imitated the Soviet nationality model, a system which has been termed an "affirmative action empire." This book offers two contributions to the literature which run counter to this convention. First, it argues that the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union (USSR) were different; while the PRC was aimed to build an ideal-typical nation-state, the USSR was an open union of nation-states that was only temporarily confined to a physical territory. Second, while scholars who have noted this difference attribute it to contextual factors, such as ethnic structure, geopolitical status, and Russia's intervention into the Chinese Revolution, this book contends that context shaped the Sino-Soviet difference, yet it did not determine it. Rather, there was significant leeway between the implications of the contextual factors, and what the policy-designers ultimately established. This book probes who held agency, and how these individuals bridged this gap.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

October 2009

Regional politics in Russia

by Cameron Ross

This innovative, multi-contributed book, now available in paperback, argues convincingly that Russia will never be able to create a viable democracy as long as authoritarian regimes are able to flourish in the regions. The main themes covered are democratisation at the regional level, and the problems faced by the federal states in forging viable democratic institutions in what is now a highly assymetrical Federation. A major strength of the book lies in its combination of thematic chapters with case studies of particular regions and republics. Very little has been published to date on the actual processes of democratisation in particular republics and regions. The book takes into account the literature available on the 'new institutionalism' and outlines the importance of institutions in developing and maintaining democracy. It looks at the importance of sovereignty, federalism and democratic order, and considers the distinct problems of party-building in Russia's regions. Electoral politics are also considered fully, before the book goes on to consider the whole issue of regional politics and democratisation in five particular areas of Russia - Novgorod, the Komi Republic, Russia's Far East, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. The authors, the majority of whom are internationally recognised experts in their field, have been drawn from Britain, the USA, Russia and Germany, giving the book a truly global perspective. ;

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Humanities & Social Sciences

October 2020

The European Union and its eastern neighbourhood

Europeanisation and its twenty-first-century contradictions

by Mike Mannin, Paul Flenley

This volume is timely in that it explores key issues which are currently at the forefront of the EU's relations with its eastern neighbours. It considers the impact of a more assertive Russia, the significance of Turkey, the limitations of the Eastern Partnership with Belarus and Moldova, the position of a Ukraine in crisis and pulled between Russia and the EU, security and democracy in the South Caucasus. It looks at the contested nature of European identity in areas such as the Balkans. In addition it looks at ways in which the EU's interests and values can be tested in sectors such as trade and migration. The interplay between values, identity and interests and their effect on the interpretation of europeanisation between the EU and its neighbours is a core theme of the volume.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

April 2025

The Royal and Russian Navies

by David Fields, Robert Avery

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February 2016

Crossroads in Modern Russian History.

Translated by Antonina W. Bouis.

by Gaidar, Yegor; Chubais, Anatoly / Übersetzt von Bouis, Antonina W.

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The struggle for balance in Europe

by John Lough

by Jens Siegert

by Andrew Monaghan, Richard Connolly

by Andrew Monaghan, Richard Connolly

by Maria Taroutina, Allison Leigh

by Michael Waller, Bill Jones

Critical realism in nineteenth-century Russia

by David Jackson

by Derek Averre

Vol. 1: The Maidan uprising in 2013/2014 Vol. 2: The annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass

by Winfried Schneider-Deters

by Andrew Monaghan

Neurasthenia in the life and work of Leonid Andreev

by Frederick H. White

Problems and prospects

by Ian Thatcher

by John Lough, Andrew Monaghan

The domestic politics of Vladimir Putin

by Bettina Renz, Edwin Bacon, Julian Cooper

by Andrew Monaghan

Reorganizing empires into nation states

by Luyang Zhou

by Cameron Ross

Europeanisation and its twenty-first-century contradictions

by Mike Mannin, Paul Flenley

by David Fields, Robert Avery

Translated by Antonina W. Bouis.

by Gaidar, Yegor; Chubais, Anatoly / Übersetzt von Bouis, Antonina W.

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