Steven J. Zaloga has found that a third contributor—the Russian defense industry—also played a vital role.Drawing from elusive Russian source material and interviews with many proud Russian and Ukrainian engineers, Zaloga presents a definitive account of Russia’s strategic forces, who built them, and why. The book is the first in English to refer to the weapons by their actual Soviet names, providing the bedrock for future works. Helpful appendices list U.S., NATO, and other designations, and the illustrations provide clear visual references.

    This study, based on recently declassified documents in the United States, Great Britain, China, and Russia, is unusual in that it looks at both sides of “the China embargo.” It concludes that economic sanctions provide, in certain circumstances, an attractive alternative to military intervention (especially in the nuclear age) or to doing nothing. The author argues that while the immediate effects may be meager or nil, the indirect and long-term effects may be considerable; in the case he reexamines, the disastrous Great Leap Forward and Anti-Rightist campaign were in part prompted by the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. Finally, though the embargo created difficulties within the Western alliance, Beijing was driven to press the USSR for much greater economic assistance than Moscow thought feasible, and the ensuing disagreements between them contributed to the collapse of the Sino-Soviet alliance.Going beyond the rational choice approach to international relations, the book reflects on the role of mutual perceptions and culturally bound notions in shaping international economic sanctions. In addition to contributing to a better understanding of the economic aspects of Cold War history, the book attempts to give more empirical substance to the developing concept of “economic diplomacy,” “economic statecraft,” or “economic warfare” and to relate it to the idea of conflict management.Part of the Cold War International History Project Series from Woodrow Wilson Center Press

    With unique attention to the successor states of the former Soviet Union, Cichock's book is perfect for those instructors who want their students to study and understand the entire Eurasian region and not just Russia in isolation. More than a decade after the end of the Soviet Union, Russia and Eurasian states remain closely connected to one another and an analysis of the entire region-comparing and contrasting these states-yields valuable insights into modern Russian politics and the Soviet legacy. Unlike other books dealing with post-Soviet Russia, Russian and Eurasian Politics does not emphasize history. Instead, it boldly tries to evaluate politics in five states in the most up-to-date fashion possible, emphasizing political culture and economic development as the primary forces of change. The book focuses on institutional constraints and state-building, constitutions, and the volatile nature of inter-ethnic conflict to describe political systems taking shape before the eyes of the world.

    Glazov shows that the strategy of accommodation, the main difference between Canadian and American Soviet policy, was ultimately vindicated by the eventual ascendancy of a liberal Soviet leader (Gorbachev), which led to increased East-West contact and Soviet liberalization, phenomena that led directly to the West's victory in the Cold War. Glazov's new assessment of Western policies toward Khrushchev's Russia is critical to our understanding of present-day Russia, since Gorbachev's democratization, which led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, had its origins in the Khrushchev thaw. Canadian Policy toward Khrushchev's Soviet Union provides vital information to help answer the question of how the West should deal with Russia, especially in the context of globalization - one of the most urgent issues facing Canada and the Western world.

    Now this pioneering work by historian Vladimir A. Kozlov has opened up these hidden chapters of Soviet history. It details an astonishing variety of widespread mass protest in the post-Stalin period, including workers' strikes, urban riots, ethnic and religious confrontations, and soldiers' insurrections. Kozlov has drawn on exhaustive research in police, procuracy, KGB, and Party archives to recreate the violent major uprisings described in this volume. He traces the historical context and the sequence of events leading up to each mass protest, explores the demographic and psychological dynamics of the situation, and examines the actions and reactions of the authorities. This painstaking analysis reveals that many rebellions were not so much anti-communist as essentially conservative in nature, directed to the defense of local norms being disturbed by particular instances of injustice or by the rash of Krushchev-era reforms. This insight makes the book valuable not only for what it tells us about postwar Soviet history, but also for what it suggests about contemporary Russian society as well as popular protests in general.