Ronald J. Hill - Böcker

After two terms as president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin handed over to his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev on 7 May 2008, and became prime minister. As president, Putin moved swiftly and effectively to overcome the chaotic legacy of his predecessor, post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Focusing on rebuilding the authority of the Russian state, and taking advantage of the rise in world prices of the country’s main asset – oil and natural gas – Putin won unassailable popularity at home and caused apprehension around the world, particularly in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. His methods of rule caused anxiety among liberals and democrats inside Russia and abroad. The legacy of Putin’s presidency poses challenges that demand interpretation. He has not departed from the Russian or the world political scene, and the need to understand and come to terms with Putin’s Russia has not diminished.These essays by an international team of authors are based on presentations to a working conference held in Naples, Italy, in May 2008, supplemented by contributions from authors who were not present at the conference, in order to present a wider selection of views and interpretations of the Putin phenomenon.This book was published as a special issue of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

First Published in 1992. The present collection of essays brings together the concepts of change and development, by using the concept of evolution to explore various forms of change in the communist and 'post-communist' world. The author's experience of living in the provinces of the Soviet Union later persuaded them of the inappropriateness of at least a rigid application of the concept of totalitarianism. This title will also satiate the further interest of the interaction between 'capitalism' (or liberal democracy) and 'communism', particularly the impact of capitalism's technical innovations on some of communism's basic principles of rule.

The Soviet Communist Party (1986) provides a concise and accessible description, analysis and assessment of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and its place in the Soviet political system. It covers the Party’s structures, membership, personnel and functions, and relations with the state institutions, and discusses the Party’s role in leading other institutions and the press, and the part it plays in foreign relations. The book concludes with an examination of the CPSU in terms of a number of concepts that have been applied to it – as an elite, a class, a ‘totalitarian leader’s following’.

The Soviet Communist Party (1986) provides a concise and accessible description, analysis and assessment of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and its place in the Soviet political system. It covers the Party’s structures, membership, personnel and functions, and relations with the state institutions, and discusses the Party’s role in leading other institutions and the press, and the part it plays in foreign relations. The book concludes with an examination of the CPSU in terms of a number of concepts that have been applied to it – as an elite, a class, a ‘totalitarian leader’s following’.

After two terms as president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin handed over to his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev on 7 May 2008, and became prime minister. As president, Putin moved swiftly and effectively to overcome the chaotic legacy of his predecessor, post-Soviet Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin. Focusing on rebuilding the authority of the Russian state, and taking advantage of the rise in world prices of the country’s main asset – oil and natural gas – Putin won unassailable popularity at home and caused apprehension around the world, particularly in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood. His methods of rule caused anxiety among liberals and democrats inside Russia and abroad. The legacy of Putin’s presidency poses challenges that demand interpretation. He has not departed from the Russian or the world political scene, and the need to understand and come to terms with Putin’s Russia has not diminished.These essays by an international team of authors are based on presentations to a working conference held in Naples, Italy, in May 2008, supplemented by contributions from authors who were not present at the conference, in order to present a wider selection of views and interpretations of the Putin phenomenon.This book was published as a special issue of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.