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Boris Yeltsin's attempts at democratic reform have plunged a long troubled Russia even further into turmoil. This dramatic break with the Soviet past has left Russia politically fragmented and riddled with corruption, its people with little hope for the future. In a fascinating account for anyone ...

Boris Yeltsin's attempts at democratic reform have plunged a long troubled Russia even further into turmoil. This dramatic break with the Soviet past has left Russia politically fragmented and riddled with corruption, its people with little hope for the future. In a fascinating account for anyone interested in Russia's current political struggles, Tim McDaniel explores the inability of all its leaders over the last two centuries--tsars and Communist rulers alike--to create the foundations of a viable modern society. The problem then and now, he argues, is rooted in a cultural trap endemic to Russian society and linked to a unique sense of destiny embodied by the "Russian idea."In its most basic sense, the Russian idea is the belief that Russia can forge a path in the modern world that sets itself apart from the West through adherence to shared beliefs, community, and equality. These cultural values, according to McDaniel, have mainly reversed the values of Western society rather than having provided a real alternative to them. By relying on the Russian idea in their programs of change, dictatorial governments almost unavoidably precipitated social breakdown.When the Yeltsin government declared war on the Communist past, it broke with deeply held Russian values and traditions. McDaniel shows that in cutting people off from their pasts and promoting the West as the sole model of modernity, the reformers have simultaneously undermined the foundations of Russian morality and the people's sense of a future. Unwittingly, the Yeltsin government has thereby annihilated its own authority.McDaniel lived in Russia for three years during both the Communist and post-Communist periods. Basing his analysis on broad historical research, extensive travels, countless interviews and conversations, and friendships with Russians from all walks of life, McDaniel emphasizes the perils of assuming that Russians understand the world in the same way that we do, and so can and should become like us. Challenging and provocative in its claims, this book is intended for anyone seeking to understand Russia's attempts to create a new society.

Culture and Customs of Russia is a splendid introduction to the largest country in the world. This timely volume gives the scope of the country from earliest history to the breakup of the Soviet Union and beyond. Students and a general audience will learn about the land, history, thought and ...

Culture and Customs of Russia is a splendid introduction to the largest country in the world. This timely volume gives the scope of the country from earliest history to the breakup of the Soviet Union and beyond. Students and a general audience will learn about the land, history, thought and religion, social customs, marriage and family, education, cuisine, fashion, literature, media, film, the arts, and architecture. The authoritative breadth of coverage, accessibility, and engaging writing style are truly outstanding.

With the collapse of the Soviet empire in the late 1980s, the Russian social landscape has undergone its most dramatic changes since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, turning the once bland & monolithic state-run marketplace into a virtual maze of specialty shops-from sushi bars to discotheques & ...

With the collapse of the Soviet empire in the late 1980s, the Russian social landscape has undergone its most dramatic changes since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, turning the once bland & monolithic state-run marketplace into a virtual maze of specialty shops-from sushi bars to discotheques & tattoo parlors. In Consuming Russia editor Adele Marie Barker presents the first book-length volume to explore the sweeping cultural transformation taking place in the new Russia. The contributors offer a portrait of how the people of Russia reconcile prerevolutionary elite culture-as well as the Communist legacy-with the influx of popular influences from the West to build a society that no longer relies on a single dominant discourse & embraces the multiplicities of both public & private Russian life. Fusing theoretical analysis with ethnographic research to examine the rise of popular culture, Barker brings together Russian & American scholars from anthropology, history, literature, political science, sociology, & cultural studies. These experts cover topics as varied as post-Soviet rave culture, rock music, children & advertising, pyramid schemes, tattooing, pets, & spectator sports. They examine detective novels, anecdotes, issues of feminism & queer sexuality, nostalgia, the Russian cinema, & graffiti. Discussions of pornography, religious cults, & the deployment of Soviet ideological symbols as post-Soviet kitsch also help to demonstrate how the rebuilding of Russia's political & economic infrastructure has been influenced by its citizens' cultural production & consumption. This volume will appeal to those engaged with post-Soviet studies, to anyone interested in the state of Russian society, & to readers more generally involved with the study of popular culture.