Cultures of Power in Post-Communist Russia

Michael Urban is Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of numerous books including The Rebirth of Politics in Russia (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and Russia Gets the Blues: Music, Culture and Community in Unsettled Times (2004). He has frequently commented on Russian affairs on radio and television in the US, UK and Russia.

Review of the hardback: 'Michael Urban returns to an earlier and less developed theme of his work: the analysis of elite discourse, and its relationship to values and social interactions as a means of understanding politics. Cultures of Power is a conceptual and empirical tour de force, providing a plausible and persuasive explanation for the particular forms of elite discourses in Russian politics by locating them within the specific form of 'civil society' that has developed around elite 'power networks'. This book will further magnify Urban's already significant and distinctive signature in the study of Russia.' James Hughes, London School of Economics

• 1. Introduction; 2. Social relations; 3. Community; 4. Morality; 5. Competence; 6. Revolution; 7. Conclusion; Appendix. Sketches of respondents' backgrounds.