Bøger i NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies serien

A historical and empirical study of Russian economic and social policy, tracing long-term evolutions across the Soviet and Russian periods. Circumstances explain the failure of transition policies that worked elsewhere, leading Christensen to re-examine accepted "post-communist" transition theory.

Overturning the view of early Russian prose fiction as a pale imitation of European models, this discussion locates the origins of the Russian novel in 18th century indigenous writing. Tracing the novel's development, it analyzes the prose of Fedor Emin, Mikhail Chulkov and Matvei Komarov.

Who ruled the countryside in late Imperial Russia? On the rare occasions that tsarist administrators dared pose the question so boldly, their discouraged answer was that peasants ruled. This title challenges this dominant paradigm of the closed village by investigating the ways peasants engaged tsarist laws and the local institutions.

Exploring the confrontation between atheism and the lower classes' traditional beliefs, this work offers a fresh interpretation of early Soviet efforts to create an atheistic, scientific society.

The "Age of Great Cities" erupted in East Central Europe in the last quarter of the 19th century as migrants poured into imperial and regional capitals. For citizens of places like Cracow, discovering and enacting metropolitan identities reinforced their break from a provincial past while affirming their belonging to "modern European civilization." Strolling the city streets, sipping coffee in cafés, riding the electric tram, and reading the popular press, Cracovians connected to modern big-city culture. In this lively account, Wood looks to the mass circulation illustrated press as well as to supporting evidence from memoirs and archives from the period to present Cracow as a case study that demonstrates the ways people identify with modern urban life.Wood's original study represents a major shift in thinking about Cracovian and East Central European history at the turn of the century. Challenging the previous scholarship that has focused on nationalism, Wood demonstrates that, in the realm of everyday life, urban identities were often more immediate and compelling. Becoming Metropolitan will appeal to scholars and students of urban history and the popular press, as well as to those interested in Polish history, Eastern European history, and modern European history.

What did it mean to be Russian as the imperial era gave way to Soviet rule? The author turns to a unique art form produced in the village of Palekh to investigate how artists and craftsmen helped to reshape Russian national identity. This book follows the development of Palekh art as it adapted to dramatic changes in the Russian nation.

The transformation of the Russian nobility between 1861 and 1914 has often been attributed to the anachronistic attitudes of its members and their failure to adapt to social change. Becker challenges this idea of "the decline of the nobility." He argues that the privileged estate responded positively to change and greatly influenced their nation's political and economic destiny.

An examination of the Russian security service in the titanic struggle between the regime and those dedicated to the defeat of monarchical absolutism. It looks at the years from 1866 through to 1905, tracing the reaction, expansion and evolution of the security police.