SUBJECTS 
Political Science 
International Relations

Sovietology, Rationality, Nationality

History

Motyl, Alexander

Russia

Columbia University Press

In the wake of the Soviet Union's disintegration, the nationality question has assumed centre stage. This text aims to offer an insight into the conflict which rages widely across the fledgling post-Soviet nations.

Thinking Theoretically About Soviet Nationalities

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

How must Sovietology change as a result of the Soviet Union's collapse? Motyl and his colleagues suggest that the first step in reorientation of the field must involve recognizing the non-Russians and their republics as central to both Soviet politics and to the post-Soviet reality. The authors, all leading Sovietologists, illustrate how nationality interacted with and shaped ideology, law, elite recruitment, political repression, modernization, participation, political economy, and class. Each of the articles traces the relationship between nationality and aspects of the Soviet system up to the collapse of the USSR and the emergence in its stead of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The contributors not only provide a coherent interpretation of the demise of Soviet Communism, but they also sugest what dangers and opportunities lie in store for the Soviet Union's successor states.

The Post-Soviet Nations

In this concise, provocative, and trenchant book, Alexander J. Motyl argues that social scientists must pay more rigorous attention to the formulation of concepts, as they provide the basis for clear thinking, good research, and intelligent formulation of theories. Before even contemplating the question of whether or not theories "fit the facts" and explain what they purport to explain, it behooves us to ask whether or not theories make sense conceptually.Focusing his "conceptual explorations" on three phenomena―revolutions, nations and nationalism, and empires―Motyl challenges the sloppy thinking that so often surrounds these three interrelated concepts, and moves our understanding of them―and their implications for both theory and practice―toward greater precision.

Revolutions, Nations, Empires

Despite their historical importance, empires have received scant attention from social scientists. Now, Alexander J. Motyl examines the structure, dynamics, and continuing relevance of empire―and asks, "Why do empires decline? Why do some empires collapse? And why do some collapsed empires revive?" Rejecting choice-centered theories of imperial decline, Motyl maintains that the very structure of empires promotes decay and that decay in turn facilitates the progressive loss of territory. Although most major empires have in fact declined in this manner, some, such as the Soviet Union, have collapsed suddenly and comprehensively. Motyl explains how and why collapse occurs, why such an outcome is hard to foresee, and why some collapsed empires revive. While broad-ranging historically and empirically, Imperial Ends focuses on five modern empires: the Soviet, Romanov, Ottoman, Habsburg, and Wilhelmine. Examining the possibility of a revival of the Soviet empire, Motyl points out that the expansion of NATO and the European Union, along with increasing globalization, will isolate Russia and its neighbors, promoting their dependence upon one another and perhaps facilitating the rise of the former core. With boldly stated conclusions and concise analytical interpretations, Imperial Ends cohesively illustrates to policymakers and social scientists alike the importance of possible imperial revivals and the rise of future empires.

Imperial Ends

Themes of identity, faith, and redemption combine as a disillusioned KGB assassin and an insecure female U.S. diplomat track down an Ivy League professor running a prostitution ring in Ukraine. Anatoly Filatov is the "whiskey priest," a despairing Communist true believer, whose world comes crashing down with the collapse of the USSR. Jane Sweet is the foreign-service officer, a Ukrainian-American woman who discovers her identity, as both a woman and a Ukrainian, while liberating herself from her past. The action heats up as Filatov, who is a part-time hit man for the Russian Mafia, kills three American professors in Vienna. The fourth, a cynical Ivy League professor and Soviet émigré, Igor Bazarov, escapes to Kiev. The four professors stole millions of dollars from the Mafia and invested in a prostitution ring that exploits Ukrainian women. Filatov and Sweet pursue Bazarov throughout Ukraine, and, along the way, Filatov seduces Sweet. As the two close in on Bazarov, Sweet realizes she has been used-and plots revenge in a stunning conclusion.

WHISKEY PRIEST

Literature & Fiction

Literary

iUniverse

Fiction. SWEET SNOW is set in the winter of 1933 in Ukraine. A terrible famine is raging in the countryside, while the Soviet secret police is arresting suspected spies in the cities. A German nobleman from Berlin, a Jewish communist from New York, a Polish diplomat from Lwów, and a Ukrainian nationalist from Vienna come to share a cell in some unknown prison. One day, as they are being transported to another prison, their van overturns, their guards are killed, and they are freed—to wander amidst the devastated villages, desolate landscapes, snowbound villages, and frozen corpses. As they struggle to survive, they come to grips with the horror of the famine as well as with their own delusions, weaknesses, and mortality.

Sweet Snow

Contemporary

Cervena Barva Press

How are democracy and market reforms faring in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union? Is civil society expanding or shrinking? Are the media free or fettered by official constraints? To what degree are nations governed by the rule of law? Are human rights respected? Do taxation and trade policies, property rights reforms, banking laws, privatization, and macroeconomic policies encourage or encumber private sector development and economic growth?In Nations in Transit 2000-2001, Freedom House asked leading regional specialists and in-house experts to answer a checklist of more than 70 indicators for 27 post-Communist countries in ten key areas: political process, civil society, independent media, governance and public administration, constitutional, legislative and judicial framework, corruption, privatization, macroeconomic policy, microeconomic policy, and social sector indicators.The results are incisive, authoritative, and comprehensive country-by-country reports which assess the progress of East Central European and former Soviet countries in ridding themselves of repressive political systems and inefficient statist economies. As an added dimension, Freedom House also developed a rating system which allows for a comparative analysis of countries in terms of democratic and market reforms. Nations in Transit is an invaluable resource for government and non-governmental institutions, schools and universities, and anyone else interested in better understanding the political, economic, and legal structures and institutions that compromise the infrastructure on which the transition to open societies and markets depends.

Nations in Transit - 2001-2002: Civil Society, Democracy and Markets in East Central Europe and Newly Independent States

Politics & Government

Routledge

Based on the life stories and personal memories of the author's mother, uncle, and aunt, "Fall River" is a multi-dimensional exploration of how family history, Ukrainian roots, and European war shaped the personal destinies of three Ukrainian Americans who were born in Fall River, grew up in interwar Poland, and returned to an America that was as alienating as it was welcoming. Narrated from different, though intersecting, perspectives, "Fall River" paints a complex portrait of American emigrants forced by fate to become Ukrainian refugees and European immigrants.

Fall River

United States

Alternative Book Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Motyl, Alexander. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Motyl, Alexander

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Motyl, Alexander. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sovietology, Rationality, Nationality

Thinking Theoretically About Soviet Nationalities

The Post-Soviet Nations

The Post-Soviet Nations

Revolutions, Nations, Empires

Imperial Ends

WHISKEY PRIEST

Sweet Snow

Nations in Transit - 2001-2002: Civil Society, Democracy and Markets in East Central Europe and Newly Independent States

Fall River