Monumentality in Urban Design: The Case of Russia

A prominent American urban geographer and observer of the Russian urban scene provides an overview of grand planning and monumental urban design in Russia and the former Soviet Union through the lens of four themes outlined in a previous paper by Larry Ford (2008). In the process, he adds two more themes relevant to Russia and the former USSR: town building and architecture intended to define and legitimize state power, and the shaping or remodeling of society to reflect a regime's ideology. Noting the obstacles in the West to getting large urban projects planned, accepted, and completed, he argues that monumental urban landscapes appear to demand some degree of sustained, centralized, authoritarian leadership. The latter has been present in Russia and the USSR during much of the past millennium, including the present, but the emergence of new commercial/corporate forces in urban land development also bears scrutiny in studies of the processes promoting urban monumentality. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, R14, R52. 10 figures, 44 references.     

Urban Development Projects in Moscow: Market/State Relations in the New Russia

Major political and economic changes have taken place in Russia and these have impacted on the nature of development projects. This paper explores the three largest projects in Moscow that have been built or planned in recent years; the Manezh Square shopping development, the rebuilding of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and the planned international office quarter 'Moscow City'. These projects are analysed in the context of the changing relationship between politics and the market. In the conditions of the New Russia market principles have been deployed in a particular way and the public-private relationship has taken on a distinctive form.     

The Mafia,the market and the state in Italy and Russia

Pino Arlacchi (1983) La mafia imprenditrice (Bologna: II Mulino); translated by Martin Ryle as Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso, 1986), $13.95, ISBN 0‐86091‐892‐0.

Raimondo Catanzaro (1988) II delitto come impresa: storia sociale della mafia (Padua: Liviana Editrice); translated by Raymond Rosenthal as Men of Respecc: A Social History of the Sicilian Mafia (New York: Free Press, 1992), $22.95, hardback, ISBN 0‐02‐905325‐0.

Diego Gambetta (1992) La mafia siciliana: Una industria della protezione privata (Turin: Einaudi revised paperback edn, 1994); translated as The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993), $39.95 hardback, ISBN 0‐674‐80741‐3.

Salvatore Lupo (1993) Storia della mafia dalle origini ai giorni nostri (Rome: Donzelli Editore).

Alexander Stille (1995) Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (New York: Pantheon), ISBN 0679425799.

Stephen Handelman (1995) Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press), $27.50, hardback, ISBN 0‐300‐06352‐0.

Robert Putnam (1993) Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), $39.95, hardback, $14.95, paperback, ISBN 0‐691‐03738‐8.     

争夺中国东北:1900至1903年的美国对俄外交

190 0年至 190 3年俄国占据中国东北期间 ,美国为了维护其在中国东北的利益 ,与俄国展开了一场激烈的外交争夺。美国积极利用英国和日本施加于俄国的压力 ,与俄国暗中展开谈判。其间 ,美国以牺牲中国权益包括“中国完整”为诱饵 ,诱使俄国同意美国在东北“利益均沾”。由于列强争夺态势的复杂性及利益的不可调和性 ,美俄谈判无果。最后美国逐渐转向支持日本对俄开战的政策。整个过程说明了美国对华“门户开放”政策的实用主义的特点     

Pressures on Urban Water Resources in Russia: The Case of St. Petersburg

An American geographer evaluates the process of water resources planning and management in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, based on regional government documents, interviews with local water management officials, and follow-up field observations in 2007. St. Petersburg is a microcosm for challenges to assessing and managing water resources in urban environments in transition economies more broadly, and thus the present study yields insights into obstacles confronting water planners in many large cities in the post-Soviet realm, and augments the body of empirical data on the impacts of economic transition on environmental management. 3 figures, 46 references.     

Urban landscapes and spatial planning in industrial districts: The case of Veneto

A new spatial pattern developed out of a long process of economic, social and physical restructuring which changed Veneto, a poor, mainly agricultural, region into a technologically advanced industrial one, without the major imbalances characterizing other areas. We can assume this new pattern of development as a consequence of a specific growth model. Its typical features are mixture, contemporaneousness, mobility: in such a situation, traditional planning approaches lose most of their validity. Nor is it worth, at this stage, mentioning the economic and environmental reasons that go against such a pattern of scattered growth, since this type of development is the result of an advanced civil and economic condition. This kind of urban development raises a number of new problems: environmental pollution, waste of land, irrational use of the existing infrastructural network. They all require large‐scale planning, which is just what never worked before: the success of the model was largely the result of a set of unplanned policies.     

A fertile mother Russia: pronatalist propaganda in revolutionary Russia

The Soviet consultation with its attendant propaganda, visiting nurses, and vacation homes attempted to set science and the doctor as the ultimate authority in matters of child rearing in place of old authorities, deny the contention that motherhood was a natural ability of women, and take over the father's place in the home. Soviet health care policy bridges pre- and postrevolutionary thought, blurred the boundaries between public and private, and mirrored international natalist policies. However, the application of these policies conformed to Soviet concepts of citizens' duties and state imperatives.     

艺术家长廊——博物馆走向市场的探索与思考

收藏、研究、展示、教育是博物馆的四大功能,其中展示、教育是对社教工作的深化和提高,是社教工作的最终目标。实践证明,展示、教育是社教工作为社会提供优质服务的最佳手段。在社会主义市场经济条件下,博物馆要生存下去,必须适应市场经济的要求,满足不同层次观众的需要,并提供优质的服务和健康向上的精神食粮。山西省博物馆社教部开办的艺术家长廊,为博物馆走向市场进行了有益的探索与尝试。     

Islamic radicalization in Russia: an assessment

To what extent does Russia face the threat of Islamic radicalization? This article provides an assessment of the nature and severity of the threat and its changing dynamics from the Yeltsin to the Putin periods in post‐Soviet Russia. It argues that, contrary to many accounts, the threat was at its greatest during the late 1990s and in the Yeltsin period. Moreover, the Putin administration adopted a series of policies that have had some significant successes in stemming the flow of Islamic radicalism within Russia. This has involved a policy mix, including repression and coercion, most notably in the military campaign in Chechnya; diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and broader Muslim world to improve Russia's image; pro‐active domestic policies to co‐opt and support moderate Russian Muslim leaders and their communities; and attempts to construct a national identity and ideology which supports the multi‐confessional and multinational nature of the Russian state and recognizes the Muslim contribution to Russian statehood and nationality. Although these policies have had their successes, there are also significant limitations, the most notable of which is the failure to address the problems of poor governance in the North Caucasus, which has sustained the Islamist insurgency in the region. The failure to develop an intermediary Muslim civil society in Russia more generally also contributes to the continuing appeal of Islamist radicalism, particularly among younger Russian Muslims.     

Geographical Metanarratives in Russia and the European East: Contemporary Pan-Slavism

A specialist on Russian geopolitical metanarratives investigates the re-emergence of Pan-Slavism in the ideological landscape of contemporary Russia. Arguing that it is a heterogeneous assemblage of both mutually antagonistic and complementary narratives about the unity of Slavic peoples, the author posits that Pan-Slavism's durability lies not in its conceptual coherence but rather its emotional appeal to disparate Slavic peoples in the former Soviet Union as well as Eastern and Southeastern Europe. After briefly tracing the history of Pan-Slavism from its 17th-century roots through World War I into the Soviet period, he explores the metanarrative's capacity to take modern Russia's geopolitical thinking in new directions, including the potential to replace Russians' center-periphery worldview with a that of a cosmopolitan network of kindred nations affording Russia greater access to the European community.     

The shock of the old: architectural preservation in Soviet Russia

In Soviet sources from the Brezhnev era, the history of architectural preservation after 1917 was presented as a triumph of rational state‐building and cultural organisation: with the support of Lenin, the Bolshevik government had rapidly put in place effective measures to protect historic buildings for future generations. As this article shows, the evolution of legislative and practical measures was considerably more complicated than this optimistic representation would suggest. In the early Soviet period, a highly ideologised understanding of the past meant that preservationist ambitions might (especially during the ‘Great Break’ of 1928–1932) be seen as intrinsically reactionary. The canon of historical buildings was shaped by perceptions of centrality to Soviet values, as well as historical and aesthetic importance. The article also explores the transformation of attitudes to architectural heritage as a response to destruction by the invading forces during the ‘Great Patriotic War’, after which commitment to preservation became far more whole‐hearted, although enforcement and financial support continued to be inconsistent. The Soviet case indicates not just the importance of heritage preservation to the cultural ambitions and self‐image of the modern state but the limits of commitment to preservation and the pressure placed on this by the commitment to all‐out modernisation and to the propaganda of new identities and values.     

俄罗斯华侨历史概述

从19世纪中期开始, 华侨问题就引起了俄罗斯政府和学者的注意。俄罗斯华侨见证并参与了远东地区的开发和十月革命, 而后又经历了国内战争、新经济政策、工业化、农业集体化、卫国战争等剧烈的社会动荡和变革。无数华侨为苏维埃政权的诞生、苏联社会主义建设以及抗击德国法西斯入侵奉献了自己的力量和生命。与此同时, 复杂多变的俄(苏) 中两国关系以及远东地区政治和军事局势对俄罗斯华侨的命运产生了种种不利影响。本文分1917年二月革命和十月革命之前、革命和国内战争期间以及苏联时期三个时期, 对19 世纪中期至20 世纪中期的俄罗斯华侨历史进行考察,以加强两国学者对俄罗斯华侨问题的了解和交流。     

The vertikal: power and authority in Russia

Power and authority in Russia are traditionally seen to reside with the president. Such an understanding was emphasized during the eight years of Vladimir Putin's presidency, from 2000 to 2008, as he sought to centralize power, strengthen the state and establish a strong vertical of power to implement policy. This article examines the nature of this power and authority in the light of the tandem, the ruling arrangement between current President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. While acknowledging the central importance of Vladimir Putin in Russian political life, the article argues that emphasis on his role draws too much attention away from the leadership team that he has shaped with Medvedev. This team takes shape in formal institutional structures such as the Security Council, which has become an increasingly important group as a reservoir of experience and authority. It also takes shape in an informal network that stretches across state and business boundaries. Although there are some tensions in the network, this team ensures broad policy continuity. Furthermore, the article questions Putin's success in establishing a vertical of power, and the authority of both President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. The analysis explores evidence that suggests that, despite the appointment of loyal personnel in this vertical of power, presidential instructions, orders and personnel commands often remain incompletely and tardily carried out or even unfulfilled. In essence, therefore, although many have suggested a split within the leadership, particularly between Medvedev and Putin, the article suggests that the more important splits are horizontal ones between different layers of authority. Thus, a process of direct control is necessary, whereby the most senior officials are obliged personally to oversee the implementation of their instructions. The article concludes by suggesting a reconsideration of our terms of reference for Russian politics, replacing the tandem with the team, and introducing ‘manual control’.