This proficiency based book helps readers expand and deepen their knowledge of Russian grammar; acquire greater command of vocabulary; and increase their ability to understand, speak and read Russian.

This proficiency based book helps readers expand and deepen their knowledge of Russian grammar; acquire greater command of vocabulary; and increase their ability to understand, speak and read Russian.

Cultural diversity---the multitude of different lifestyles that are not necessarily based on ethnic culture---is a catchphrase increasingly used in place of multiculturalism and in conjunction with globalization. Even though it is often used as a slogan it does capture a widespread phenomenon that cities must contend with in dealing with their increasingly diverse populations. The contributors examine how Russian cities are responding and through case studies from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Sochi explore the ways in which different cultures are inscribed into urban spaces, when and where they are present in public space, and where and how they carve out their private spaces. Through its unique exploration of the Russian example, this volume addresses the implications of the fragmented urban landscape on cultural practices and discourses, ethnicity, lifestyles and subcultures, and economic practices, and in doing so provides important insights applicable to a global context. --Book Jacket.

Leon Aron considers the “mystery of the Soviet collapse” and finds answers in the intellectual and moral self-scrutiny of glasnost that brought about a profound shift in values. Reviewing the entire output of the key glasnost outlets in 1987-1991, he elucidates and documents key themes in this national soul-searching and the “ultimate” questions that sparked moral awakening of a great nation: “Who are we? How do we live honorably? What is a dignified relationship between man and state? How do we atone for the moral breakdown of Stalinism?” Contributing both to the theory of revolutions and history of ideas, Aron presents a thorough and original narrative about new ideas’ dissemination through the various media of the former Soviet Union. Aron shows how, reaching every corner of the nation, these ideas destroyed the moral foundation of the Soviet state, de-legitimized it and made its collapse inevitable.

Russia has embarked on a slow but steady path of foreign policy alignment with the West. President Vladimir Putin¡¯s market-oriented economic policies and structural reforms have added momentum. But in the long run, the decisive factor in Russia¡¯s relationship with the West will be the nature of the political order it builds on the ruins of communism. There is a broad consensus among Western observers that Russia¡¯s effort to build Western-style democratic institutions in the eleven years since the Soviet collapse has stalled somewhere between democracy as understood in the West and the highly authoritarian order Russia inherited from the USSR. Some would say that Russia is doomed by its history and political culture to a lengthy period of semi-authoritarianism. In Russia¡¯s Road to Deeper Democracy, Tom Bjorkman presents evidence that this assessment is too pessimistic and underestimates the forces for political change that lie beneath the surface of what seems to be an era of political somnolence. Bjorkman argues that it is not the weight of history or the antidemocratic attitudes of the Russian population that restrain Russia from making progress toward stronger democratic institutions but specific leadership policies and elements of Russia¡¯s political elite who have a self-interest in maintaining the status quo. Putin and other senior leaders¡¯ support for proposals for democratic change now under discussion in Russia can create the kind of competitive political marketplace that the country needs to avoid political stagnation and begin to build the strong and prosperous state that all Russians want. America exerts a large influence on Russia¡¯s debate about its political future: by demonstrating that Russia¡¯s progress toward a stronger democratic order matters to the United States and by treating Russia as a part of the West, the United States can buttress internal forces pushing for a deeper Russian democracy.