Handbook of Soviet Social Science Data

Politics & Social Sciences

Mickiewicz, Ellen

Social Sciences

Free Press

Now with a new chapter on the reported US-Russia media "war" How will the future leaders of Russia regard the world scene? How will they regard democracy, free speech, and immigration? And what sorts of tactics will they bring to international negotiating tables, where politics and economics are central? These young people have strong and surprising views about their country and its leadership, the United States, and the international arena - and they trust each other and the world only with deep reservations and, often, fear. One concept that has come to dominate the discussion around trust and international relations with Russia is "information weaponization". The paperback edition of No Illusions: The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders features a new chapter analyzing this clamorous issue, exploring with new research this rapidly expanding source of policy making. To what extent and why is the weaponization idea so widespread and influential in NATO and many Western governments, media, and think tanks? How does it stand up to evidence? Equally important are urgent questions about the Russians who are rising in government institutions: how to understand and predict their attitudes? No Illusions provides an engaging, intimate, and unprecedented window into the mindsets of the next generation of leaders in Russian politics, business, and economics. In this book, one hundred and eight students in Russia's three most elite universities, the training grounds for the nation's leadership, reveal their thoughts on international relations, neighboring countries, domestic and international media, democratic movements, and their government in focus groups; they speak candidly, passionately, and sometimes sardonically about the United States. As well, Ellen Mickiewicz, one of the world's foremost experts on Russian media, politics, and culture, shows how their total immersion in the world of the internet -- an immersion that sets them apart from the current generation of Russian leadership and much of the rest of the country -- frames the way that they think and affects their trust in their leaders, the media, and their colleagues. Their worldviews are complex and often contradictory, reflecting complicated personalities that are adaptable yet also subject to much internal strife and "splintering." For example, while many of them are planning to go into politics, they express ambivalence about voting; they have favorable views of democracy, but not of the American model; they are shrewd critics of government propaganda and yet have clearly absorbed residue of Cold War defensiveness. Mickiewicz also looks at the nation's massive protests and nascent political movements to show how they came about and to consider what promise they might hold even in times of narrowing opportunities. She profiles several of Russia's up-and-coming leaders, including charismatic and controversial activist and politician Aleksei Navalny, who, even during his legal trials and house arrest, remains the face of the opposition to the Putin regime. As this book shows, the next generation of Russian leadership promises to hold a rather different worldview from that of the current one, yet it is not a worldview that readily embraces American democracy. No Illusions is a thought-provoking and often surprising glimpse into the future of Russia's foreign relations.

No Illusions: The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Politics & Government

Oxford University Press

Television has changed dramatically in the Soviet Union. In 1960, only five percent of the population had access to TV, but by 1986, fully 93 percent were viewers, across a vast land mass stretching over eleven time zones. It is now the main source of information in the USSR, and as Ellen Mickiewicz points out, television has become Mikhail Gorbachev's most powerful instrument to pave the way for change in the economy, the political system, the educational system--in short, in the way that the Soviet people relate to society and the state.  In this wide-ranging, vividly written volume, Mickiewicz compares over 100 hours of Soviet and American television, covering programs broadcast during both the Chernenko and Gorbachev governments. She describes the enormous popularity of news programs--the main such broadcast, Vremya (Time), is watched by 150 million viewers nightly, or over 80 percent of the adult population--and discusses how Soviet jounalists work in the United States, how they understand us, what sources they rely on, and what they think of our coverage of them. Mickiewicz offers a fascinating description of the world seen on Soviet TV. For instance, Soviet viewers see much more international news than American viewers, and this news tends to focus on the West, with less coverage of Communist Bloc countries and the Third World. Political violence and protest marches dominate the news, stressing capitalist unrest and the overall responsibility of the United States. But perhaps most interesting are the changes in programming that have occured with Gorbachev's policy of glasnost: youth programs such as 12th Floor in which high-schoolers confront government and party officials, no-holds-barred debates between American critics of Soviet policies and Soviet television personalities, and even "trial by television" of bureaucrats and managers.  The first in-depth look at Soviet television, Split Signals is an eye-opening account spiced with interviews with major Soviet and American media figures and fascinating descriptions of Soviet TV shows. It will interest anyone curious about the USSR or the impact of television on society.

Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union (Communication and Society)

History

Russia

Television has changed drastically in the Soviet Union over the last three decades. In 1960, only five percent of the population had access to TV, but now the viewing population has reached near total saturation. Today's main source of information in the USSR, television has become Mikhail Gorbachev's most powerful instrument for paving the way for major reform. Containing a wealth of interviews with major Soviet and American media figures and fascinating descriptions of Soviet TV shows, Ellen Mickiewicz's wide-ranging, vividly written volume compares over one hundred hours of Soviet and American television, covering programs broadcast during both the Chernenko and Gorbachev governments. Mickiewicz describes the enormous significance and popularity of news programs and discusses how Soviet journalists work in the United States. Offering a fascinating depiction of the world seen on Soviet TV, she also explores the changes in programming that have occurred as a result of glasnost.

Humor & Entertainment

Television

At 7:20 pm on October 3, 1993, a nervous and shaky anchor broke into coverage of a soccer match to tell Russian viewers that their state television was shutting down. In the opening salvos of the parliamentary revolt against Boris Yeltsin's government, a mob had besieged the station's headquarters. A man had just been killed in front of the news director. Moments later, screens all across Russia went blank, leaving audiences in the dark. But in less than an hour, Russia's second state channel went on the air. Millions watched as Sergei Torchinsky anchored thirteen straight hours of coverage, often with the sound of shooting clearly audible in the background. Streams of politicians, trade union leaders, writers, television personalities, and other well-known figures braved gunfire to reach Channel Two's makeshift studios and speak directly to the nation. In one stunning moment, a famous actress extemporaneously pleaded with viewers not to return to the horrors of Stalinism. Boris Yeltsin, who had been glued to his television set like everyone else, later recalled, "For the rest of my life I will remember the anxious but resolute and courageous expression of Liya Akhedzhakova. . . her hoarse, cracking voice remains in my memory." In that time of crisis, television bound the nation together, a continuing emblem of legitimate authority which lent an image of stability and credibility to Yeltsin's besieged government. "Television saved Russia," the Russian president said. Changing Channels vividly recreates this exciting time, as television both helped and hindered the Russian nation's struggle to create a new democracy. From the moribund, state-controlled television broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union, through Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost, up to Yeltsin's victory in the most recent Russian presidential elections of 1996, Mickiewicz charts the omnipresent role of television, drawing on interviews, public opinion surveys, research, and the television programming itself. Analyzing the rise of political advertising (sometimes with controversial US participation), the birth of journalists as opinionated television personalities, and the changing news coverage of coups, elections, and wars, she shows both how the gradual development of private, independent stations has begun to make real pluralism possible and how the authoritarian legacy of the Soviet state structure continues to affect Russian television even today. With television in 97% of all Russian households, and the nightly news watched by a viewership matching that for the Super Bowl in the US, the struggle for control over television became the struggle for control over the nation. Mickiewicz illuminates the efforts of those both in and out of power to control the media. Behind the momentous political changes are the stories of the men and women who chose to resist, test, or submit to the system. Mickiewicz offers brilliant sketches of these individuals: Yegor Ligachev, Gorbachev's second in command, a man of strongly held opinions who, in retirement, still orated loudly, even over tea; Boris Yeltsin, having not even put on his shirt yet, watching the early morning coverage of the attempted coup against Gorbachev; or the new breed of Russian journalists covering the war in Chechnya with footage of bombed out streets and charred corpses for privately owned NTV, despite continuing government intimidation. In vivid interviews, all the key players, including Gorbachev himself, offered Mickiewicz their unique insights and frank personal commentary. Drawing on these interviews and on her extensive research on the interactions of politics, economics, and society, Mickiewicz presents a rich and authoritative analysis of television in Russia. In many ways, Mickiewicz writes, no other country in the world offers television a greater opportunity and a greater role. Changing Channels tells the fascinating story of a truly modern phenomenon: the struggle to create genuine political pluralism, helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements, and media-created personalities that make up modern television.

Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia

Legal Theory & Systems

Media and the Russian public

Media and the Russian Public

Business & Money

Praeger

International Security and Arms Control examines the impact of arms control and nuclear strategy issues on the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Based on a conference held at Emory University, this book's contributors include former Presidents Ford and Carter, as well as Henry Kissinger, Anatoly Dobrynin, and other current or former important American and foreign government officials and academic experts. They explore the interaction between regional conflicts and superpower policies, how new technologies affect the status quo, and the past record and future prospects for negotiations. Including an examination of U.S. allies and non-nuclear nations, this important and timely new work will appeal to the specialist or layman interested in this critical issue.

International Security and Arms Control

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Soviet Political Schools: the Communist Party Adult Instruction System

New Haven Yale University Press

The Russian media are widely seen to be increasingly controlled by the government. Leaders buy up opposing television channels and pour money in as fast as it hemorrhages out. As a result, TV news has become narrower in scope and in the range of viewpoints which it reflects: leaders demand assimilation and shut down dissenting stations. Using original and extensive focus group research and new developments in cognitive theory, Ellen Mickiewicz unveils a profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the viewers on the other side of the screen. This is the first book to reveal what the Russian audience really thinks of its news and the mental strategies they use to process it. The focus on ordinary people, rather than elites, makes a strong contribution to the study of post-communist societies and the individual's relationship to the media.

Television, Power, and the Public in Russia

Cambridge University Press

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