Alexei Navalny: Mayoral Platform for 2013
Alexey Navalny is probably the most viable opposition politician to emerge in Russia in the last decade. His supporters point to his efforts to create…
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The Theories of the Slavophiles: on the Relationship between State and Society in Russia
This essay considers the Slavophile conception of the state and its relationship with society as part of the wider Slavophile program of the 1830s-1850s, which…
Responding to the Dual Threat to Kazakhness: The Rise of Alash Orda and its Uniquely Kazakh Path
In 1917, following the fall of the Russian empire, Alash Orda, a provisional Kazakh government formed by members of the Alash nationalist party, partially filled…
Nationalism as a Political Factor in Late-Soviet Kazakhstan
“Nationalism is a political principle which maintains that similarity of culture is the basic social bond.” – E. Gellner[1] “Казахстан в современных границах исторически был территорией…
On the Eve of Crimean Independence
The day before Crimea voted in its independence referendum, The Village, a Moscow-based publication with editions in St. Petersburg and Kiev, asked residents of various…
Crimea Crisis Reader: Thinking Critically about the Crisis
The following articles have been chosen for discussing the political, diplomatic, military, social, and economic causes and potential effects of the current crisis on the…
12 Things You Should Know about the Agreement in Ukraine
An agreement was brokered by EU leaders between Ukraine’s ruling party and the opposition. That agreement, however, was broken the day after it was signed…
Russian MiniLessons: Political Asylum and Related Russian Vocabulary
The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal…
Nationalist Thought in Contemporary Russia
The Russian nationalist movement came to prominence in the late Soviet era and the early years of the Russian Federation. Russia had never existed as…
Batkivshchyna: Party Platform
Yulia Tymoshenko is perhaps the most powerful, popular, and controversial woman in Eastern European politics. She rose to power quickly during the turbulent 1990s as…
Yulia Tymoshenko & Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) Party
A Coalition of Populism and Nationalism Yulia Tymoshenko is perhaps the most powerful, popular, and controversial woman in Eastern European politics. She rose to power…
Ukraine’s Party of Regions: Part 2
Below is the second part of the 2009 platform from Ukraine’s Party of Regions, produced shortly after the Orange Revolution forced party leader Viktor Yanukovych…
Ukraine’s Party of Regions: Part 1
Ukraine’s Party of Regions is criticized as pro-Russian and even as supportive of Russian nationalists in Ukraine. It is often criticized as a political vehicle…
Rodina
Rodina first began as an electoral bloc called “The People’s Patriotic Union of Rodina,” uniting about 30 groups for participation in the 2003 Duma elections….
A Vision and a Guiding Light in an Age of Disunity: A review of Theodosius’ contributions to Vladimir I’s vision
Артельный горшок гуще кипит “With a helper, many things are possible” – Russian Proverb ‘Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and…
Russian MiniLessons: Акции протеста в России – Protests in Russia
The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal…
The Eurasian Youth Union
The short political program of The Eurasian Youth Union, presented below, perhaps belies the depth and breadth of Eurasianism’s body of philosophy. The Eurasianists are…
Sergei Udaltsov and The Left Front
Sergei Udaltsov and his organizations, which include The Left Front, rose to prominence with the protests that swept Russia after the 2011/2012 election cycle. Udaltsov’s…
The Komsomol(s)
The Komsomol was founded in 1918 as the Russian Young Communist League. Originally, it was an organization independent from, but supportive of, the Communist Party,…
“Against All”: Protest Voting in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan
In the months leading up to Russia’s most recent state Duma elections, ‘Just Russia’ party leader Sergei Mironov demanded that the country have the option…