Why did the Stalin era, a period characterized by bureaucratic control and the reign of Socialist Realism in the arts, witness such an extraordinary upsurge of musical creativity and the prominence of musicians in the cultural elite? This is one of the questions that Kiril Tomoff seeks to answer in Creative Union, the first book about any of the professional unions that dominated Soviet cultural life at the time. Drawing on hitherto untapped archives, he shows how the Union of Soviet Composers established control over the music profession and negotiated the relationship between composers and the Communist Party leadership. Central to Tomoff's argument is the institutional authority and prestige that the musical profession accrued and deployed within Soviet society, enabling musicians to withstand the postwar disciplinary campaigns that were so crippling in other artistic and literary spheres. Most accounts of Soviet musical life focus on famous individuals or the campaign against Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth and Zhdanov's postwar attack on musical formalism. Tomoff's approach, while not downplaying these notorious events, shows that the Union was able to develop and direct a musical profession that enjoyed enormous social prestige. The Union's leadership was able to use its expertise to determine the criteria of musical value with a degree of independence. Tomoff's book reveals the complex and mutable interaction of creative intelligentsia and political elite in a period hitherto characterized as one of totalitarian control.

The book provides a detailed analysis of the freedom of expression, and of copyright legislation in Russia, always with an eye on historic comparisons and evolutions . At the same time it gives a synthetic overview of the main changes in constitutional, civil and economic law in the last 15 years.

"Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) has been regarded for too long as an isoteric thinker who evacuates theology by subjecting it to scientific theory. There is an urgent need to reclaim him as a French catholic theologian with intellectual roots in the early twentieth century. Teilhard's imaginative and inspiring work is grounded in the constructive use of biblical and patristic motifs and in his own life experiences of war, exile and scientific endeavour. From these, he develops a distinctive philosophical theology which combines elements frequently assigned to the separate domains of philosophy of religion, systematic theology and mysticism. Teilhard provides a detailed theology of human embodiment and natural substance, whilst his theories of human action, passion, vision and virtue offer suggestive resources to pastoral theology. His evolutionary cosmology and social democratic politics are discussed in their historical context, and the significance of his work for the ongoing dialogue between science and religion is assessed."--BOOK JACKET.

The book traces the origins of change in general education in the last years of the Soviet Union and afterwards in the Russian Federation. It describes what happened during perestroika and glasnost and the struggles for liberalization which were finally given official recognition in 1998. After the anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991, with the disintegration of Soviet and Communist power, decentralization and regionalization developed, together with the emergence of alternative schools and finally a small private sector. The book also describes the many problems faced by schools and teachers with the near collapse of the Russian economy.

Cousins evaluates our present religious condition and reflects on the importance of tradition, spirituality, and mysticism in understanding ourselves and others.

On cover: European Programme of National Cultural Policy Reviews/Culture