Edwin Bacon

This textbook offers an up-to-date and incisive overview of contemporary Russia. Systematically covering the country’s history, geography, society, politics, economy and culture, it analyses current developments —the headlines and the more everyday— and situates its analysis in the wider historical context to help readers make sense of one of the world’s most important regions. Building on the success of its previous editions and analysing complex questions in the light of expertise gathered over decades, this remains the leading text for a wide-ranging account of Russia today. Praised for its accessible and engaging writing style, this new edition is essential reading for anyone interested in gaining a more nuanced and wide-ranging understanding of contemporary Russia. It is ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Russian society, culture, politics, and international relations.

The third edition of Contemporary Russia is fully revised to provide a comprehensive introduction to the society, politics and culture of one of the most important countries in global affairs today. The author details Russia's historical background as well as the nation's current concerns and distinctive features in this accessible analysis.

The third edition of Contemporary Russia is fully revised to provide a comprehensive introduction to the society, politics and culture of one of the most important countries in global affairs today. The author details Russia's historical background as well as the nation's current concerns and distinctive features in this accessible analysis.

Securitising Russia shows the impact of twenty-first-century security concerns on the way Russia is ruled. It demonstrates how President Putin has wrestled with terrorism, immigration, media freedom, religious pluralism, and economic globalism, and argues that fears of a return to old-style authoritarianism oversimplify the complex context of contemporary Russia. The book focuses on the internal security issues common to many states in the early twenty-first-century, and places them in the particular context of Russia. Detailed analysis of the place of security in Russia’s political discourse and policy-making reveals nuances often missing from overarching assessments of Russia today. To characterise the Putin regime as the ‘KGB-resurgent’ is to miss vital continuities, contexts, and on-going political conflicts which make up the contemporary Russian scene. Securitising Russia draws together current debates about whether Russia is a ‘normal’ country developing its own democratic and market structures, or a nascent authoritarian regime returning to the past.

Throughout the Stalin era and after, the Gulag system of forced labor blighted the Soviet Union. Millions were incarcerated in its camps, some to be eventually released, many to die imprisoned and faceless. For decades, histories of the camp system have relied on the experiences of those who suffered within them for their main source of information. Though these accounts have been supplemented with officially sanctioned Soviet publications, the details of the forced labor system have for decades remained hidden by state secrecy. But with the collapse of the Soviet empire, the archives of the Gulag are now opening. Drawing on the archival records kept by Gulag authorities themselves, The Gulag at War traces the development of this system in the Soviet Union from 1920 through 1960. The volume describes the state's perceptions of the camps and their tasks and addresses long-held questions concerning the motives behind the system. Specific attention is given to the World War II years; the information found in the archives shows the importance of forced labor to Soviet, and therefore Allied, victory. The Gulag at War offers a close investigation of different aspects of camp life during this time, supplying data concerning the numbers and backgrounds of the prisoners, the economic tasks and achievements, the camp conditions, and the effectiveness of camp security which have previously been unavailable.