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 The rise and fall of the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]) was one of the seminal events of the 20th century, and the Soviet system continues to attract the attention of scholars and students. The abrupt and unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union cast into doubt many of the core principles of comparative politics and international relations. Existing theories could not explain the sudden disappearance of such a well-institutionalized political system, one with a vast arsenal of military power. The political and economic trajectories of the countries that replaced the Soviet Union have raised a new but no less fascinating set of challenges. The post-Soviet countries faced a triple transition: to replace a multinational “empire” with independent nation-states; to construct a market economy in the wake of a collapsed central planning system; and to make the transition from socialist, one-party rule toward liberal democracy (or not, in most cases). Although some of the post-Soviet states built robust democracies and even won entry into the European Union, others retreated into clan politics or harsh dictatorships. The region presents many puzzles to engage scholars, from how to build rule of law in societies lacking in that tradition to how to solve the secessionist conflicts that fractured Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The transition has been going on since 1991, but it is only in the early 21st century that doctoral dissertations have been written and more sophisticated analyses of these complex and shifting processes are being published. There is more than enough interesting material to fill a one- or two-semester university course. However, the politics and social dynamics of the region are much more complex and differentiated than was the case back in the USSR, so studying and teaching about the region are more challenging. Many professors have narrowed their scholarly and pedagogic focus to Russia itself, whereas others research and teach separately on Ukraine, the Baltics, Central Asia, or the Caucasus. As of the early 21st century, the full implications of the post-Soviet transition for the broader disciplines of political science, economics, and sociology have not been fully worked through. Scholars still disagree over the extent to which the disappointing results of the transition—ethnic conflict, economic stagnation, and political repression—can be attributed to cultural legacies from the Soviet era, failures of institutional design during the 1990s, or the impact of exogenous forces emanating from the surrounding international system.
 
 Journals
 
 There are a variety of lively journals addressing the post-Soviet region. Some of them date back to the Soviet era, usually changing their name after 1991. The most respected academic journals are Europe-Asia Studies, based at Glasgow University in the United Kingdom, and Post-Soviet Affairs, based at the University of California, Berkeley. The journals listed here are primarily those with a social science focus. There are many more dealing primarily with history and culture; two examples on this list are the Russian Review and Slavic Review.
 
 Central Asian Survey. 1982–.
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 Articles on Central Asia from a broad range of disciplines.
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 Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 1993–.
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 Academic articles about various aspects of contemporary politics.
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 Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. 1993–.
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 Articles on contemporary politics, with a focus on the democratic transition.
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 Eurasian Geography and Economics. 1960–.
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 The leading journal for more technical aspects of regional economics and geography. Formerly Soviet Geography from 1960 to 1992, then Post-Soviet Geography from 1992 to 1995, and then Post-Soviet Geography and Economics from 1996 to 2002.
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 Europe-Asia Studies. 1993–.
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 Formerly Soviet Studies (1949–1992). The longest-running Soviet studies journal, covering history, politics, and economics.
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 Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. 2004–.
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 This France-based online journal covers developments in the military and security agencies.
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 Post-Soviet Affairs. 1985–.
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 A Berkeley-based academic journal with cutting-edge articles on contemporary politics and economics.
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 Problems of Post-Communism. 1952–.
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 Short articles by leading experts for a policy-oriented audience.
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 Russian Review. 1941–.
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 This journal is interdisciplinary, with a focus on history.
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 Slavic Review. 1941–.
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 Interdisciplinary journal of the American Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.
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 Historical Background
 
 Students who are studying post-Soviet politics may need some background in Russian and Soviet history. Clearly, the legacy of Soviet political institutions and values weighs heavily on post-Soviet political developments. Professors face a difficult trade-off in deciding how many weeks they should devote to pre-1991 history in a class on post-Soviet politics. The pre-1917 historical record also deserves some attention. Since 1991 the Russian state has tried to establish some continuity with the Tsarist past, reviving some pre-1917 symbols and restoring the Orthodox Church as a component of Russian identity. Western scholars are vigorously debating the extent to which Russia’s distinctive historical path has made it difficult for the country to fully adopt Western institutions, such as liberal democracy and market capitalism.
 
 Russian Political Traditions
 
 Historians have identified deep continuities in Russian history stemming from Russia’s geopolitical location: the perceived need for a strong leader to hold together the vast Russian lands, the country’s decisive role in the European balance of power from 1700 to 1990, and its complex relationship to European civilization—both part of Europe and yet distinct from it. Poe 2006 and McDaniel 1998 set the stage for the general reader. Hellie 2005 offers a denser and sophisticated historical account of the dynamics of the Russian state, whereas Hedlund 2005 frames the same issues for a contemporary political economy audience. The popular account in Figes 2003 provides some of the rich background of Russian culture, which is what first attracts many students to the study of this region.
 
 Figes, Orlando. Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia. New York: Picador, 2003.
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 A highly readable overview for students who want to explore Russia’s rich cultural legacy, which persisted over the years despite the surrounding political turmoil.
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 Hedlund, Stefan. Russian Path Dependence: A People with a Troubled History. Routledge Studies in European Economy. London and New York: Routledge, 2005.
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 A Swedish political economist lays out the argument that Russia has been trapped in a vicious cycle of inefficient and ultimately dysfunctional authoritarian institutions.
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 Hellie, Richard. “The Structure of Russian Imperial History.” In Special Issue: Theorizing Empire. Edited by Philip Pomper. History and Theory 44.4 (2005): 88–112.
 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2303.2005.00344.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 An article in which the esteemed Chicago historian laid out his theory of Russian/Soviet history as a succession of “service classes.” Available online by subscription.
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 McDaniel, Tim. The Agony of the Russian Idea. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
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 The broad sweep of Russian history explained in the context of the chaotic post-Soviet transition of the 1990s.
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 Poe, Marshall T. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
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 A short book that eloquently summarizes the key themes of the Russian state, from medieval Rus through to the Soviet Union. Ideal for an undergraduate audience with no background in Russian history.
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 The Soviet System
 
 The 1917 revolution and Stalin’s “revolution from above” represented an unprecedented effort to transform Russian society and at the same time overthrow global capitalism. Fitzpatrick 2008 and Malia 1995 provide analytical narratives from a liberal and a conservative perspective, respectively. Keep 2002 picks up the story after the Lenin- and Stalin-led revolutions, which are the focus of Fitzpatrick and Malia. Kotkin 1997 is a case study of a single city experiencing Stalin’s revolution from above. Von Laue 1997 and Cohen 1986 are interpretative essays that advance alternative hypotheses about why Soviet history turned out the way it did: the logic of economic development for Von Laue, the betrayal of the revolution by a deranged leader for Cohen. Yurchak 2006 captures the ideological decay of the late Brezhnev era and has drawn wide attention from anthropologists and historians for its effective use of letters and diaries.
 
 Cohen, Stephen F. Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History since 1917. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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 Cohen argues that Soviet history was not doomed to follow the Stalinist path, that reformers could have put the USSR on a different path in the 1920s or after Stalin’s death.
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 Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. 3d ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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 The most widely used introduction to the 1917 revolution.
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 Keep, John L.H. Last of the Empires: A History of the Soviet Union, 1945–1991. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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 A textbook history of the Soviet Union since World War II.
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 Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
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 A case study of life in a Urals city at the heart of Stalin’s 1930s industrialization drive.
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 Kotkin, Stephen. “Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization.” In Stalinism: The Essential Readings. Edited by David L. Hoffman, 107–126. Blackwell Essential Readings in History. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.
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 A summary of the main arguments from Kotkin 1997.
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 Malia, Martin. The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917–1991. New York: Free Press, 1995.
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 A survey of Soviet history that amounts to an indictment of the human costs of the Soviet experiment.
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 Von Laue, Theodore H. Why Lenin? Why Stalin? Why Gorbachev? The Rise and Fall of the Soviet System. 3d ed. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1997.
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 A succinct statement of the argument that Stalinism was one answer to the question of how to modernize Russia in order to enable it to compete with the West.
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 Yurchak, Alexei. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
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 A widely read book by the Berkeley anthropologist Yurchak, in which he tracks the ideological decay of the USSR during the late Brezhnev era through interviews and personal correspondence.
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 The Collapse of the Soviet System
 
 The appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985 set in motion a series of events that led to the rapid and largely unexpected collapse of the Soviet state. This complex process had both an internal aspect (the reforms of glasnost and perestroika) and an international aspect (the end of the Cold War and the Soviet retreat from East Europe).
 
 Gorbachev’s Reforms
 
 Gorbachev’s reforms clearly played a pivotal role in triggering the Soviet collapse. Observers differ over whether Gorbachev was a prisoner of circumstances or an independent agent of change. Kotkin 2008 pulls domestic and international factors together into a single fluid account. Dunlop 1995 tracks the political struggles of the Gorbachev period. Brown 1997, a biography of Gorbachev, portrays him as the pivotal agent of change. Gaidar 2007 and Ellman and Kontorovich 1998 examine the economic forces behind the Soviet system’s collapse. Kotz and Weir 1997 and Cohen 2004 are interpretive essays looking for broader social and international forces behind the profound changes that took place. Cox 1999 is a collection of some of the academic writing from the 1990s on how to explain the Soviet collapse.
 
 Brown, Archie. The Gorbachev Factor. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
 DOI: 10.1093/0192880527.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 The definitive biography of the last Soviet leader, which portrays him in a positive light as a dynamic and farsighted reformer.
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 Cohen, Stephen F. “Was the Soviet System Reformable?” Slavic Review 63.3 (2004): 459–488.
 DOI: 10.2307/1520337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Cohen believes that Gorbachev’s reforms could have succeeded, with more help from the West. Available online through purchase.
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 Cox, Michael, ed. Rethinking the Soviet Collapse: Sovietology, the Death of Communism and the New Russia. London and New York: Pinter, 1999.
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 A collection of essays reviewing the academic debates around the Soviet collapse.
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 Dunlop, John B. The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Union. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
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 A thorough account of the years 1985–1991, focusing on the political obstacles that doomed Gorbachev’s reform efforts. Dunlop argues that it was the rise of the Russian Republic within the complex Soviet federal structure, under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, that proved Gorbachev’s undoing.
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 Ellman, Michael, and Vladimir Kontorovich, eds. The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System: An Insiders’ History. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.
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 Based on interviews with former planning officials, Ellman and Kontorovich contend that the Soviet economy was stable until Gorbachev’s reforms disrupted the planning bureaucracy.
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 Gaidar, Yegor. Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia. Translated by Antonia W. Bouis. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2007.
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 An account of the Soviet collapse by Yeltsin’s first prime minister and the architect of his economic reforms. Gaidar stresses the economic bankruptcy of the Soviet regime, weighed down by a budget deficit and foreign debts and exacerbated by a slump in the global price of oil.
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 Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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 The best single-volume treatment of the Soviet collapse, weaving the main causal factors into an accessible yet sophisticated account.
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 Kotz, David M., and Fred Weir. Revolution from Above: The Demise of the Soviet System. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
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 A Marxist, class analysis of the Soviet transition. Kotz and Weir assert that the Soviet nomenklatura decided for selfish reasons to switch from communism to capitalism, converting their political connections into personal wealth.
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 The End of the Cold War
 
 Within a few years, Gorbachev abandoned the Soviet Union’s effort to compete militarily with the United States. This stunning development confounded political scientists who believed that military capacity objectively determined great power behavior. Zubok 2007 is a definitive account of the diplomatic history of the Cold War. Garton Ash 1993 and Kotkin 2010 take opposite positions on the question of whether the Berlin Wall came down because of pressure from below or a loss of faith by ruling elites. English 2000, Matlock 2004, and Grachev 1995 reconstruct, from different perspectives, the reasoning behind the decision of Gorbachev and his advisors to launch radical reforms. Thomas 2001 broadens the search for causal explanations beyond Gorbachev’s coterie.
 
 English, Robert. Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
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 English argues that ideas matter: a small group of party intellectuals persuaded Gorbachev to embrace “new thinking” in foreign policy, leading to arms talks and the end of the Cold War.
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 Garton Ash, Timothy. The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of ’89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. New York: Vintage, 1993.
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 A journalist’s vivid account of the collapse of communism in east–central Europe.
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 Grachev, Andrei S. Final Days: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Translated by Margo Milne. Bounder, CO: Westview, 1995.
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 A revealing account of the negotiations between Gorbachev and Western leaders by his former press spokesman.
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 Kotkin, Stephen. Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment. Modern Library Chronicles. New York: Modern Library, 2010.
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 A short and somewhat controversial account of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one that contends that the key factor was not popular mobilization, such as Poland’s Solidarity, but the loss of faith by ruling communist elites.
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 Matlock, Jack F., Jr. Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended. New York: Random House, 2004.
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 An insider’s account from the last US ambassador to the Soviet Union, filled with telling detail. Matlock convincingly argues that the personalities of the two leaders played a crucial role at this unique historical juncture.
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 Thomas, Daniel C. The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
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 Thomas asserts that shifts in the international system and the rise of human rights undermined the ideological legitimacy of the Soviet system.
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 Zubok, Vladislav M. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. New Cold War History. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
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 The background on the Soviet role in the Cold War by a Russian historian now teaching in the United States.
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 The Politics of Post-Soviet Russia
 
 In the 1990s Russian politics was in a period of chaotic upheaval. Events were moving so quickly that American scholars found it hard to isolate a topic for thorough analysis. It was difficult to discern the long-term trends. It was assumed that Russia and the other post-Soviet states were in a period of transition to Western-style democracy and capitalism, so that has been the most common organizing frame for analysis. Russian political history also neatly falls into two periods, marked by two successive presidents: the 1990s, under Boris Yeltsin (see Boris Yeltsin), and the 2000s, under Vladimir Putin (see The Political Regime under Putin); therefore, the most popular books are those that focus on those two respective periods. In 2008 Putin stepped down as president but stayed on as prime minister, leaving analysts guessing whether President Dmitry Medvedev has any real power (see From Putin to Medvedev). Treisman 2011 was penned by one of the few authors to come forward with a comprehensive analysis of the main trends in Russia’s political development since 1991. Service 2006 is a looser interpretive essay for the general reader. Textbook writers have had a hard time keeping up with developments since 1991. Very few authors try to include coverage of the politics of states outside the Russian Federation. Hesli 2006 covers five countries, and Ioffe 2010 all fifteen. The complexity of recent developments and the lack of a broad secondary literature means that even for Russia, sole-authored textbooks are quite rare. Most professors seem to opt for the multiauthor collections, in which different specialists can write about the presidency, the electoral system, the economy, and so on. Shiraev 2010 is straightforward, whereas Sakwa 2008 and Remington 2011 try to fit the Russian experience into a broader frame of political analysis. Barany and Moser 2001; White, et al. 2010; and Wegren 2010 offer quite similar collections of essays on various aspects of Russian political, social, and economic development.
 
 Barany, Zoltan, and Robert G. Moser, eds. Russian Politics: Challenges of Democratization. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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 A collection of chapters by younger US scholars; particularly good on political institutions. Now dated, however.
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 Hesli, Vicki L. Governments and Politics in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2006.
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 A study of the post-1991 political evolution in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, and Uzbekistan.
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 Ioffe, Grigory. Global Studies: Russia and the Near Abroad. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2010.
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 A collection of press articles with insightful introductions by the editor, covering all fifteen post-Soviet states.
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 Remington, Thomas F. The Politics in Russia. 7th ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2011.
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 A stalwart textbook, originating as a 1960s text, and concentrating on political institutions.
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 Sakwa, Richard. Russian Politics and Society. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 The latest in a series of books on Russian politics by the prolific British academic Sakwa.
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 Service, Robert. Russia: Experiment with a People. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
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 A well-written, somewhat breezy account by the well-known Russian historian from the University of Oxford.
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 Shiraev, Eric. Russian Government and Politics. Comparative Government and Politics. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
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 A comprehensive sole-authored textbook.
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 Treisman, Daniel. The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev. New York: Free Press, 2011.
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 An impressive overview of Russia’s political history since the mid-1980s.
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 Wegren, Stephen K., and Dale R. Herspring, eds. After Putin’s Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain. 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
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 A collection of chapters on a broad range of issues. Whereas White 2009 tries to trace developments back to the 1990s, this collection concentrates on more recent developments.
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 White, Stephen, Richard Sakwa, and Henry E. Hale, eds. Developments in Russian Politics 7. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
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 Seventh edition of a collection of essays by a mixture of UK and US authors, covering all aspects of Russian politics and society.
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 Boris Yeltsin
 
 Boris Yeltsin is recognized as a key figure in bringing down the Soviet Union, owing to his defiant opposition to the August 1991 attempted coup by antireform hard-liners. However, opinions are sharply divided over whether he played a positive or negative role in efforts to introduce democracy to Russia in the 1990s. Aron 2000 and Colton 2008 give a positive reading of Yeltsin’s historical role, whereas Reddaway and Glinski 2001 is fiercely critical, arguing that Yeltsin presided over the consolidation of power in the hands of a corrupt and undemocratic elite. Shevtsova 1999 gives a blow-by-blow account of the main events of the Yeltsin years, whereas Yeltsin 1995 tells the story from the leader’s perspective. Breslauer 2002 and Brown and Shevtsova 2001 look for patterns of rule in successive Soviet and Russian leaders.
 
 Aron, Leon. Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
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 Aron provides a strongly positive account of Yeltsin as the father of Russian democracy.
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 Breslauer, George W. Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511613531Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Insightful analysis of the contrasting styles of these two pivotal figures.
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 Brown, Archie, and Lilia Shevtsova, eds. Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin: Political Leadership in Russia’s Transition. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001.
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 Essays by leading scholars comparing the three leaders, written shortly after Putin took office.
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 Colton, Timothy J. Yeltsin: A Life. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
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 A thorough and balanced scholarly biography, based in part on interviews with former Yeltsin aides.
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 Reddaway, Peter, and Dmitri Glinski. The Tragedy of Russia’s Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2001.
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 These authors argue that Russian democratization was hijacked by corrupt insiders who maintained an authoritarian presidential system while enriching themselves through questionable market reforms.
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 Shevtsova, Lilia. Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999.
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 A clearly written, chronologically organized account of the Yeltsin years, by a Moscow-based commentator whom Western observers came to see as the most reliable authority on Russian politics.
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 Yeltsin, Boris. The Struggle for Russia. Translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. New York: Crown, 1995.
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 Yeltsin’s ghost-written autobiography (the second of three volumes that he published), describing the political struggles of the early 1990s.
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 Russia’s Transition to Democracy
 
 Yeltsin held elections on time and allowed a free press, as documented by McFaul 2002, but his dismissal of the Congress in 1993 was a sign of his diminishing democratic legitimacy. Opposition parties were not able to challenge Yeltsin’s authority, and loyal television stations helped Yeltsin win reelection as president in 1996. Fish 2005 asks why competitive democracy failed to take root in Russia. Was it the legacy of Soviet thinking, missteps by Yeltsin, or the chaos of economic reform that undermined Russian democracy? Hanson and Kopstein 1997 stimulated a debate by comparing Yeltsin’s Russia with Weimar Germany. Aron 2008 insists that the Yeltsin years did move Russia closer to democracy. Gans-Morse 2004 looks back at how Western academics framed Russian politics as centered on the “transition to democracy.”
 
 Aron, Leon. “Was Liberty Really Bad for Russia?” Demokratizatsiya 16.1 (2008): 27–36.
 DOI: 10.3200/DEMO.16.1.27-36Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A retrospective defending the liberal gains of the Yeltsin years.
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 Fish, M. Stephen. Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511791062Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A systematic analysis of the factors leading to the failed democratic transition in Russia, in comparative context. Fish rejects cultural explanations, instead stressing the negative influence of dependency on oil revenues and the emergence of a super-strong presidency and weak legislature.
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 Gans-Morse, Jordan. “Searching for Transitologists: Contemporary Theories of Post-Communist Transitions and the Myth of a Dominant Paradigm.” Post-Soviet Affairs 20.4 (2004): 320–349.
 DOI: 10.2747/1060-586X.20.4.320Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A review of the state of the “transitological” debates among Western academics. Available online through purchase.
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 Hanson, Stephen E., and Jeffrey S. Kopstein. “The Weimar-Russia Comparison.” Post-Soviet Affairs 13.3 (1997): 252–283.
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 Democracy was not the only option for Russia in the 1990s; some sort of fascism seemed a real possibility. In the 1990s it was quite common to look for parallels with the 1920s Weimar Republic, in Germany.
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 McFaul, Michael. Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002.
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 In this study, McFaul, who became President Barack Obama’s Russia advisor in 2009, accentuates the positive achievements of the 1990s.
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 Electoral Competition in the 1990s
 
 The political parties that emerged in the 1990s were weak and ineffective. Brudny 1993 tracks the breakup of the democratic movement who faced down the August 1991 coup. Without a strong, pro-democracy party, Russia was unable to sustain a competitive and open democratic system. Studies of voter behavior in Colton 2000 and Evans and Whitefield 1998, based on election results and surveys, show the people’s growing disenchantment with politics and the failure of a coherent party system to take root.
 
 Brudny, Yitzhak M. “The Dynamics of ‘Democratic Russia,’ 1990–1993.” Post-Soviet Affairs 9.2 (1993): 141–170.
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 Explanation of why Russia’s liberals failed to form a strong political party in the early 1990s.
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 Colton, Timothy J. Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
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 A detailed analysis of voting patterns in the 1990s.
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 Evans, Geoffrey, and Stephen Whitefield. “The Evolution of Left and Right in Post-Soviet Russia.” Europe-Asia Studies 50.6 (1998): 1023–1042.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668139808412579Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Tracking the haphazard emergence of a left–right political spectrum in Russia in the 1990s. Available online by subscription.
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 Parliamentary and Presidential Institutions
 
 Under Yeltsin the presidency was able to sideline the legislative and judicial branches, but it was ineffective when it came to policy implementation. There are few studies of the decision-making process inside the Russian government, not least because the structures of power were not open for public scrutiny. Huskey 1999, using such information as was publically available, notes the resurfacing of an all-powerful executive branch under Yeltsin. Sperling 2000 is a collection of essays on various aspects of governance. Morgan-Jones and Schleiter 2004 explains that the balance of power between president and parliament did not work out in the conventional way in the Russian case. Trochev 2008 is a meticulous study of why the Constitutional Court proved unable to check the overbearing presidency.
 
 Huskey, Eugene. Presidential Power in Russia. The New Russian Political System. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999.
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 Analysis of the reconstitution of a strong executive branch under Yeltsin.
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 Morgan-Jones, Edward, and Petra Schleiter. “Governmental Change in a President-Parliamentary Regime: The Case of Russia, 1994–2003.” Post-Soviet Affairs 20.2 (2004): 132–163.
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 The evolution of relations between parliament and president under Yeltsin and Putin.
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 Sperling, Valerie, ed. Building the Russian State: Institutional Crisis and the Quest for Democratic Governance. The John M. Olin Critical Issues series. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
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 Collection of essays of various aspects of state formation in the 1990s.
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 Trochev, Alexei. Judging Russia: Constitutional Court in Russian Politics, 1990–2006. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511511226Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 The first full-length study of the weakest branch of the Russian political system.
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 Regional Politics in Russia
 
 Russia was born as a complex federation consisting of eighty-nine subordinate units, twenty-two of them republics designated as homelands for ethnic minorities. Throughout the 1990s Moscow struggled to maintain control over these disparate territories, one of which—Chechnya—tried to secede. Stepan 2000 puts Russian federalism in a comparative context, whereas Stoner-Weiss 2002, Giuliano 2006, and Gorenburg 2001 analyze the way regional elites, especially in the ethnic republics, were able to consolidate power in the 1990s. Treisman 2001 and Kahn 2002 look at Russian federalism from a macro perspective, in terms of the strategies of both regional elites and the Kremlin.
 
 Giuliano, Elise. “Secessionism from the Bottom Up: Democratization, Nationalism, and Local Accountability in the Russian Transition.” World Politics 58.2 (2006): 276–310.
 DOI: 10.1353/wp.2006.0025Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of the interplay between popular demands, regional leaders, and the federal center.
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 Gorenburg, Dmitry. “Nationalism for the Masses: Popular Support for Nationalism in Russia’s Ethnic Republics.” Europe-Asia Studies 53.1 (2001): 73–104.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130124664Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Investigating the sources of support for ethnonationalist movements in Russia’s republics. Available online by subscription.
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 Kahn, Jeffrey. Federalism, Democratization, and the Rule of Law in Russia. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
 DOI: 10.1093/0199246998.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A careful institutional analysis of Russia’s federal system.
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 Stepan, Alfred. “Russian Federalism in Comparative Perspective.” Post-Soviet Affairs 16.2 (2000): 133–176.
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 A masterful analysis of the structure of the Russian Federation by an international authority in comparative politics.
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 Stoner-Weiss, Kathryn. Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional Governance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
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 Exploration of the strategies adopted by regional elites in the early 1990s, facing local electorates on one side and the demands of Moscow on the other.
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 Treisman, Daniel S. After the Deluge: Regional Crises and Political Consolidation in Russia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
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 Treisman argues that Yeltsin’s policy of brokering deals with regional leaders helped preserve political stability in the 1990s.
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 The War in Chechnya
 
 Yeltsin’s invasion of Chechnya in 1994 unleashed a bloody conflict that spilled over into terrorist acts inside Russia itself. Russian forces withdrew in 1996 but returned in 1999, and the renewed war in Chechnya was a key element in Putin’s rise to power. Russia’s motives in unleashing the war, and the prospects for peace in the region, have provoked a lively scholarly debate. There are some vivid accounts of the conflict, written from a variety of perspectives. It is important to try to understand the positions of both the Russian and Chechen sides and the way these positions shifted over time. Gall and de Waal 1998 and Dunlop 1998 are well-written books that cover the narrative of the first war (1994–1996), whereas Hughes 2007 carries the story through the second war (1999–2002). Russia’s strategic calculus is dissected in Trenin and Malashenko 2004, Menon and Fuller 2000, and Kramer 2004, whereas Lyall 2009 takes a political science approach to the counterinsurgency. Gilligan 2009 reconstructs the mechanics of Russia’s ruthless “cleansing” operations.
 
 Dunlop, John B. Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511612077Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Dunlop’s account is sympathetic to the Chechen resistance.
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 Gall, Carlotta, and Thomas de Waal. Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
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 The best journalistic account of the first Chechen war.
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 Gilligan, Emma. Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War. Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
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 Gilligan’s book carefully reconstructs the mechanics of the ruthless cleansing operations that were central to Russia’s strategy during the second Chechen war.
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 Hughes, James. Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad. National and Ethnic Conflict in the 21st Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
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 Hughes takes the story up through the end of the second Chechen war
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 Kramer, Mark. “The Perils of Counterinsurgency: Russia’s War in Chechnya.” International Security 29.3 (2004): 5–63.
 DOI: 10.1162/0162288043467450Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Kramer’s analysis focuses on Russia’s strategic choices. Available online through purchase.
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 Lyall, Jason. “Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from Chechnya.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53.3 (2009): 331–362.
 DOI: 10.1177/0022002708330881Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Lyall’s study of Russian tactics, 2000–2005, suggests, rather disturbingly, that brute force in the form of shelling villages was effective in reducing insurgent attacks.
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 Menon, Rajan, and Graham E. Fuller. “Russia’s Ruinous Chechen War.” Foreign Affairs 79.2 (2000): 32–44.
 DOI: 10.2307/20049639Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A succinct summary of the key issues from a military strategy perspective. Available online by subscription.
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 Trenin, Dmitri V., and Alexei V. Malashenko. Russia’s Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004.
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 Analysis of the two wars coauthored by the leading Russian military thinker (Trenin).
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 Russia’s Transition to a Market Economy
 
 Yeltsin’s decision to launch “shock therapy” in 1992 was widely condemned inside Russia. Western analysts were split over the feasibility of rapid market reforms, despite their apparent success in central European countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic. Åslund 1995 and Lavigne 2007 offer comprehensive and accessible overviews. In contrast to Åslund, Murrell 1993 provides a critical perspective on the appropriateness of shock therapy in Russia, one written well before many of the negative consequences had come to pass. Hellman 1998 neatly captured the growing realization that the reforms had stalled, leaving a narrow oligarchy in control. Gilman 2010 explains the origins of the pivotal 1998 crash. Åslund 2007 makes the same arguments as Åslund 1995 while taking the story forward a decade. Hill and Gaddy 2003 and Abdelal 2001 look at the transition in a broader historical and international context.
 
 Abdelal, Rawi. National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective. Cornell Studies in Political Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
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 A look at how the post-Soviet states set about charting independent economic policies.
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 Åslund, Anders. How Russia Became a Market Economy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995.
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 The best introduction to Russia’s market reforms, from an enthusiastic supporter.
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 Åslund, Anders. Russia’s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2007.
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 In this book, Åslund takes the story through the Putin era and includes more analysis of the political failings of Russia’s transition.
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 Gilman, Martin. No Precedent, No Plan: Inside Russia’s 1998 Default. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010.
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 Analysis of the roots of the 1998 financial crash by the former head of the International Monetary Fund office in Moscow. Gilman suggests that the crisis was far from inevitable.
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 Hellman, Joel S. “Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform.” World Politics 50.2 (1998): 203–234.
 DOI: 10.1017/S0043887100008091Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 An important article arguing that the oligarchs had a vested interest in stopping the reforms before market competition arose to threaten their privileged position.
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 Hill, Fiona, and Clifford Gaddy. The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia out in the Cold. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2003.
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 The Soviet legacy of huge cities in remote locations meant that the market transition would require massive social disruption and population relocation.
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 Lavigne, Marie. The Economics of Transition: From Socialist Economy to Market Economy. 2d ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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 A useful textbook introduction to the economic challenges facing the new post-Socialist economies.
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 Murrell, Peter. “What Is Shock Therapy? What Did It Do in Poland and Russia?” Post-Soviet Affairs 9.2 (1993): 111–140.
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 A skeptical take on the suitability of shock therapy in Russia.
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 The Rise of the Oligarchs
 
 The freewheeling privatization program of the 1990s created opportunities for a small group of entrepreneurs with inside connections to create wealthy business empires almost overnight. Goldman 2004 is a neat summary, whereas Freeland 2005, Hoffman 2011, and Klebnikov 2000 are eye-opening studies of the leading oligarchs. Barnes 2006 and Fortescue 2007 provide academic overviews of the shifting industrial structure.
 
 Barnes, Andrew. Owning Russia: The Struggle over Factories, Farms, and Power. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
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 Overview of the ownership structure of the Russian economy after the 1990s privatizations.
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 Fortescue, Stephen. Russia’s Oil Barons and Metal Magnates: Oligarchs and the State in Transition. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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 A careful academic account of the rise of the business empires in Russia’s energy and mining industries.
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 Freeland, Chrystia. Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution. New York: Little, Brown, 2005.
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 A lively account by the former Financial Times correspondent of the rise of the business oligarchs who profited from Yeltsin’s privatization program.
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 Goldman, Marshall I. “Putin and the Oligarchs.” Foreign Affairs 83.6 (2004): 33–44.
 DOI: 10.2307/20034135Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A clear summary of the phenomenon by a veteran economist of the Soviet system. Available online by subscription.
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 Hoffman, David E. The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. New York: PublicAffairs, 2011.
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 Washington Post journalist Hoffman profiles half a dozen of the first wave of billionaire oligarchs, including two political figures: the economic reformer Anatoly Chubais and Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.
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 Klebnikov, Paul. Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia. New York: Harcourt, 2000.
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 Biography of the businessman Boris Berezovsky by the editor of Forbes’s Russian edition, who was later assassinated.
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 The Putin Presidency
 
 Boris Yeltsin’s handpicked successor was the KGB veteran Vladimir Putin. Despite his lack of previous political experience, Putin became a popular president. While crushing Chechen independence and tightening control over political opposition, Putin left most of the market reforms intact and sought cooperation with the West. The Russian economy grew strongly during his term as president (2000–2008), thanks largely to the rising global price of oil. The interviews in Putin 2000 still provide valuable insights into his character and the way he became president. Sakwa 2008 and Jack 2005 offer a quite positive account of his first years in power, whereas Shevtsova 2005 and Baker and Glasser 2007 provide a more critical perspective. Satter 2004 portrays Putin’s Kremlin as a corrupt and criminal regime, whereas Wilson 2005 details the way that leaders in Moscow (and Kiev) used “dirty tricks” to win elections and thus maintain a facade of democracy.
 
 Baker, Peter, and Susan Glasser. Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution. New York: Scribners, 2007.
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 Detailed reporting by the authors, both Washington Post correspondents, inform this account of Putin’s first term in office.
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 Jack, Andrew. Inside Putin’s Russia: Can There Be Reform without Democracy? New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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 Balanced account by the Financial Times correspondent in Moscow.
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 Putin, Vladimir. First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia’s President. Translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000.
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 Revealing interviews on his background and political views that Putin published as part of his campaign for the presidency in 2000.
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 Sakwa, Richard. Putin: Russia’s Choice. 2d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 A fairly positive overview by a British political scientist.
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 Satter, David. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
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 A grim portrait of Russia as a state controlled by ruthless secret policemen, in league with organized crime.
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 Shevtsova, Lilia. Putin’s Russia. Rev. ed. Translated by Antonia W. Bouis. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.
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 A critical narrative of Putin’s first term by a veteran Moscow political observer.
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 Wilson, Andrew. Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
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 Interesting analysis of how the Russian and Ukrainian presidents manipulated media coverage and electoral laws to ensure that loyal candidates would prevail, behind a facade of democratic legitimacy.
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 The Political Regime under Putin
 
 Under Vladimir Putin, Russia became progressively more authoritarian, with greater state control over the media, limits on opposition activity, and a crackdown on oligarchs who sought political independence. In the early years of his presidency, Putin’s willingness to cooperate with the West led some observers to believe that further liberalization in both economic and political spheres could still be on the agenda. This is reflected in McFaul, et al. 2004, a collection of essays, and in the article Shleifer and Treisman 2004. However, the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 confirmed the views of skeptics who saw a new authoritarianism in the Kremlin, as exemplified by Baev 2004 and Sestanovich 2004. White and McAllister 2003 and Rose, et al. 2006 seek to explain the surprising level of public support for Putin, whose approval ratings rarely dipped below 70 percent. Kryshtanovskaya and White 2003 used biographical data on the composition of the ruling elite to make the argument that Putin’s administration was dominated by former security police and military officials—known as siloviki, or “men of power.” Konitzer 2006 shows how regional leaders were increasingly able to consolidate their authority and increasingly win reelection, prior to the abolition of direct elections, in 2004.
 
 Baev, Pavel K. “The Evolution of Putin’s Regime: Inner Circles and Outer Walls.” Problems of Post-Communism 51.6 (2004): 3–13.
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 Succint analysis of the key features of Putin’s political order.
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 Konitzer, Andrew. Voting for Russia’s Governors: Regional Elections and Accountability under Yeltsin and Putin. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2006.
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 Analysis of the electoral record of regional governors, who were subject to popular election between 1996 and 2004.
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 Kryshtanovskaya, Olga, and Stephen White. “Putin’s Militocracy.” Post-Soviet Affairs 19.4 (2003): 289–306.
 DOI: 10.2747/1060-586X.19.4.289Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A hotly debated article that claimed to show that Putin had appointed a wave of former and current security personnel to key positions in the Kremlin administration.
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 McFaul, Michael, Nikolai Petrov, and Andrei Ryabov, eds. Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Post-Communist Political Reform. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004.
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 Collection of essays by Russian and US scholars.
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 Rose, Richard, William Mishler, and Neil Munro. Russia Transformed: Developing Popular Support for a New Regime. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511492150Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Using electoral data and opinion polls, the authors track public opinion under President Putin.
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 Sestanovich, Stephen. “Force, Money and Pluralism.” Journal of Democracy 15.3 (2004): 32–42.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0054Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A clear introduction to the competing factions within Putin’s Kremlin.
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 Shleifer, Andrei, and Daniel Treisman. “A Normal Country.” Foreign Affairs 83.2 (2004): 20–38.
 DOI: 10.2307/20033900Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Shleiffer and Treisman argue that Russia is making steady socioeconomic progress as the market economy takes root. Available online by subscription.
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 White, Stephen, and Ian McAllister. “Putin and His Supporters.” Europe-Asia Studies 55.3 (2003): 383–399.
 DOI: 10.1080/0966813032000069304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of Russian public attitudes toward Putin, based on poll data. Available online by subscription.
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 The Russian Economy under Putin
 
 The Russian economy roughly doubled during Putin’s term in office, but critics argued it was dangerously dependent on oil and gas exports. Growth plummeted after the 2008 global financial crisis, but the government had sufficient reserves to bail out Russian banks and companies that had borrowed excessively during the boom. Åslund and Kuchins 2009 provides an overview of the political economy of Russia at the end of Putin’s two terms in office, whereas Åslund, et al. 2010 carries the story forward through the 2008 financial crisis. Rutland 2008 asks whether Russia’s dependency on oil exports is really as bad as many observers suggest. Pirani 2009 and Gaddy and Ickes 2010 insist that yes, it is, because oil and gas receipts keep a corrupt elite in power, preventing the real opening of the Russian economy to the effects of market competition.
 
 Åslund, Anders, Sergei Guriev, and Andrew Kuchins, eds. Russia after the Global Economic Crisis. Washington, DC: Petersen Institute for International Economics, 2010.
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 Analysis of the impact of the 2008 crash.
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 Åslund, Anders, and Andrew Kuchins. The Russia Balance Sheet. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics/Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
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 A systematic evaluation of social, economic, and political trends under Putin.
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 Gaddy, Clifford G., and Barry W. Ickes. “Russia after the Global Financial Crisis.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 51.3 (2010): 281–311.
 DOI: 10.2747/1539-7216.51.3.281Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Gaddy and Ickes remain pessimistic about Russia’s long-run growth prospects, owing to the dominance of rent-seeking elites.
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 Pirani, Simon. Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money and People. London and New York: Pluto, 2009.
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 Overview of the unholy alliance between state bureaucrats and billionaire oligarchs.
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 Rutland, Peter. “Putin’s Economic Record. Is the Oil Boom Sustainable?” Europe-Asia Studies 60.6 (2008): 1051–1072.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130802180975Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Examines the political dimensions of resource dependency.
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 Crime and Corruption
 
 The rise of the market economy was not accompanied by the rule of law. Instead, organized crime and corruption by political leaders and state officials became endemic. Handelman 1997 was the first journalist’s book that drew Western attention to the scale of the problem. Varese 2005 is the key academic work in the field, using concepts from the study of the Sicilian mafia to understand the Russian case. Based on the St. Petersburg example, Volkov 1999 develops a model of the “economy of violence” in a society with weak political and market institutions. Ledeneva 2006 explains how post-1991 economic practices have their roots in Soviet-era social conventions—adapted to the new market environment. Karklins 2005 provides a clear overview of the extent of corruption across the post-Soviet states.
 
 Handelman, Stephen. Comrade Criminal: Russia’s New Mafiya. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
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 A journalist’s account of the alarming spread of organized crime in the 1990s.
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 Karklins, Rasma. The System Made Me Do It: Corruption in Post-Communist Societies. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2005.
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 Clear overview of the role of corruption in post-Socialist states.
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 Ledeneva, Alena V. How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
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 A social anthropologist, Ledeneva argues that networks of friends underlie political and market transactions in Russia, a pattern dating back to Soviet times.
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 Varese, Federico. The Russian Mafia: Private Protection in a New Market Economy. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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 The classic analysis of how the mafia arose as a result of “demand” for their services from new businessmen and a ready “supply” of criminal authorities with gangs at their disposal.
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 Volkov, Vadim. “Violent Entrepreneurship in Post-Communist Russia.” Europe-Asia Studies 51.5 (1999): 741–754.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668139998697Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Volkov argues that the mafia arose to provide services, such as contract enforcement, that were not yet available, given the absence of market institutions in Russia. Available online by subscription.
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 Russia’s Demographic Crisis
 
 Russia’s death rates started to increase in the 1960s and then surged in the early 1990s. Middle-aged men were dying prematurely, with alcohol being the main culprit. At the same time, the birth rate was falling below reproduction level. In the 1990s the population decline was compensated by a surge of immigration. The government has done little to address the mortality issue but has tried to boost the birth rate. Eberstadt 2010 provides a comprehensive overview from a US specialist who has followed this problem for many years. Åslund and Kuchins 2009 summarizes the issues and investigates the collapse of state policy in the 1990s. Brainerd and Cutler 2005 offers a detailed analysis of mortality rate statistics, whereas Shlapentokh 2005 looks at the social context of the demographic decline.
 
 Åslund, Anders, and Andrew Kuchins. “Challenges of Demography and Health.” In The Russia Balance Sheet. By Judyth L. Twigg, 83–97. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics/Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009.
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 A summary of the demographic issues, plus the debilitated state of the health care system. Judyth L. Twigg is acknowledged (p. viii) in the book’s introduction as author of the draft of this chapter.
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 Brainerd, Elizabeth, and David M. Cutler. “Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 19.1 (2005): 107–130.
 DOI: 10.1257/0895330053147921Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Examination of the causes of high mortality in Russia.
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 Eberstadt, Nicholas. Russia’s Peacetime Demographic Crisis: Dimensions, Causes, Implications. Washington, DC: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2010.
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 A monograph providing a thorough overview of the demographic challenge. Available online through purchase.
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 Shlapentokh, Vladimir. “Russia’s Demographic Decline and the Public Reaction.” Europe- Asia Studies 57.7 (2005): 951–968.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130500301337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A veteran Russian sociologist, based in the United States, reviews the social roots of the demographic crisis. Available online by subscription.
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 Social Movements
 
 A strong network of civil society organizations failed to develop in Russia after the Soviet collapse. At the same time, the Putin administration took steps to limit the impact of spontaneous social protests. There is general agreement among scholars about the bleak state of civil society in Russia, though some are more optimistic than others about the possibility of a turnaround in the near future. Domrin 2003 summarizes the state of play, whereas Evans, at al. 2006 offers a detailed analysis of all aspects of the issue. Sperling 1999 surveys the limited scope for women’s organizations in the post-Soviet transitional society. Robertson 2009 details Putin’s campaign to rein in nongovernmental organizations, whereas Greene and Robertson 2010 suggests that the possibility of mass mobilization cannot be discounted.
 
 Domrin, Alexander. “Ten Years Later: Society, ‘Civil Society,’ and the Russian State.” Russian Review 62.2 (2003): 193–211.
 DOI: 10.1111/1467-9434.00272Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A useful overview of the state of civil society in Russia.
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 Evans, Alfred B., Laura A. Henry, and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, eds. Russian Civil Society: A Critical Assessment. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2006.
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 Edited collection of articles on various aspects of civil society.
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 Greene, Samuel, and Graeme B. Robertson. “Politics, Justice and the New Russian Strike.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 43.1 (2010): 73–95.
 DOI: 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2009.10.009Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of the worker unrest that spiked during the 2008–2009 economic crisis. Available online through purchase.
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 Robertson, Graeme B. “Managing Society: Protest, Civil Society, and Regime in Putin’s Russia.” Slavic Review 68.3 (2009): 528–547.
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 Tracking Putin’s crackdown on independent nongovernmental organizations. Available online through purchase.
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 Sperling, Valerie. Organizing Women in Contemporary Russia: Engendering Transition. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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 Mobilizing to defend women’s rights is still heavily influenced by Soviet-era values and practices.
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 National Identity and Political Values
 
 Soviet citizens were taught to put state patriotism above ethnic identity. As a result, post-Soviet Russia has been experiencing an identity crisis, unwilling to adopt a purely ethnic definition of Russian identity, while at the same time lacking the democratic institutions for an inclusive civic identity. Twenty percent of the population (30 million) are not ethnic Russians; another 10 million inhabitants are unregistered immigrants. Tolz 1998 gives a clear and objective account of the dilemmas of Russian national identity, the main points of the later Tolz 2001. Oushakine 2009 provides a rich ethnographic picture of these contradictory processes in a single city. The contradictory impulses of wanting to embrace parts of Russia’s Soviet and Tsarist past while rejecting others is illuminated by Daughtry 2003, on the rewriting of the national anthem. Pilkington, et al. 2010 explores the nasty subculture of xenophobic skinheads. Knox 2009 and Hahn 2007 provide authoritative accounts of the revival of Orthodoxy and Islam, respectively. Russia joined the Council of Europe in 1996, and its citizens have the right of appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, as discussed in Bowring 2009. This serves as one test of Russia’s willingness to embrace its European identity.
 
 Bowring, Bill. “Russia and Human Rights: Incompatible Opposites?” Göttingen Journal of International Law 1.2 (2009): 257–278.
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 An overview of Russia’s record before the European Court of Human Rights, particularly with regard to the war in Chechnya.
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 Daughtry, J. Martin. “Russia’s New Anthem and the Negotiation of National Identity.” Ethnomusicology 47.1 (2003): 42–67.
 DOI: 10.2307/852511Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A case study of the debates around the adoption of a new, post-Soviet anthem. Available online through purchase.
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 Hahn, Gordon M. Russia’s Islamic Threat. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
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 About 10 percent of Russia’s population is Muslim. In the North Caucasus some Muslim groups have turned to violence (notably Chechnya), whereas in the middle, Volga region, Tatars and Bashkirs have pursed autonomy within the legal confines of Russian federalism.
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 Knox, Zoe. Russian Society and the Orthodox Church: Religion in Russia after Communism. BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2009.
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 Orthodoxy has experienced a revival, with the encouragement of the state, in post-Soviet Russia.
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 Oushakine, Serguei Alex. The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. Culture and Society after Socialism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.
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 A Princeton anthropologist looks at the social psychology of post-Soviet society in the Siberian city of Barnaul.
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 Pilkington, Hilary, E. L. Omel’chenko, and Al’bina Garifzianova. Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
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 Some virulently xenophobic youth groups have arisen, sometimes tolerated and sometimes shut down by the authorities.
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 Tolz, Vera. “Forging the Nation: National Identity and Nation Building in Post-Communist Russia.” Europe-Asia Studies 50.6 (1998): 993–1022.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668139808412578Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A succinct summary of the tensions pulling Russian national identity in different directions. Available online by subscription.
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 Tolz, Vera. Russia: Inventing the Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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 Placing the debates over Russian national identity in their historical context.
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 Foreign Policy, from Yeltsin to Putin
 
 Russian leaders—and ordinary Russians—were determined to try to preserve Russia’s role as a great power in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet superpower. Russia’s nuclear arsenal was no longer a credible threat, though preventing nuclear proliferation was an important priority for the United States. Energy exports made Russia an important economic partner for Europe and China, but Moscow stumbled when it tried to use energy as a lever of influence. In the 1990s the United States stuck with its policy of supporting Boris Yeltsin despite signs that it was not working. In the 2000s Washington adopted a more wary approach to Vladimir Putin, though cooperation was still preferred to confrontation. Tsygankov 2010 and Mankoff 2009 provide reliable overviews from a sympathetic and a critical perspective, respectively. Legvold 2007 is a selection of essays by security scholars. Talbott 2003, a memoir, is a key source for understanding the Clinton–Yeltsin partnership of the 1990s. Cohen 2000 offers an interpretation diametrically opposite to that of Talbott. Trenin 2002 provides an insighful overview of Russia’s relations with the post-Soviet states in the first decade of independence. Baev 2008 and Lucas 2009 both see Russia as a threat because of its quest to gain back some of the status lost after the Soviet collapse.
 
 Baev, Pavel K. Russian Energy Policy and Military Power: Putin’s Quest for Greatness. Contemporary Security Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 Subtle analysis of Russia’s strategic options by a Norway-based expert.
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 Cohen, Stephen F. Failed Crusade: America the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia. New York: Norton, 2000.
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 A critique of US policy for being too supportive of Yeltsin, turning a blind eye to his antidemocratic moves.
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 Legvold, Robert, ed. Russian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century and the Shadow of the Past. Studies of the Harriman Institute. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
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 Collection of essays on Russian foreign policy in its historical context.
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 Lucas, Edward. The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West. Rev. ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
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 Lucas, the former Economist Moscow correspondent, stresses Putin’s great power aspirations.
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 Mankoff, Jeffrey. Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009.
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 Diplomatic history of Russia during the Putin presidency.
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 Talbott, Strobe. The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy. New York: Random House, 2003.
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 Detailed account of US–Russian relations in the 1990s by Clinton’s top Russia advisor.
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 Trenin, Dmitri. The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002.
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 An overview of the strategic fallout of the Soviet breakup, from a liberal Russian academic.
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 Tsygankov, Andrei P. Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity. New International Relations of Europe. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
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 Good introduction, covering military, diplomatic, and identity dimensions of foreign policy.
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 Russia’s Stalled Military Reform
 
 After 1991 the Russian military saw its budget slashed, but it was able to resist efforts by both Yeltsin and Putin to turn the mass conscript army into a small, professional volunteer force. Odom 2000 is the definitive account, by a former US national security official, whereas Herspring 2006 provides an insightful analysis of civil–military relations at the highest level. Golts and Putnam 2004 gives a succinct summary of the challenges facing the Russian leadership in trying to reform the military, whereas Miller and Trenin 2004 collects a range of Russian and Western expert analysis. Sperling 2003 looks at the rise of official patriotic education under Putin.
 
 Golts, Alexander M., and Tonya L. Putnam. “State Militarism and Its Legacies: Why Military Reform Has Failed in Russia.” International Security 29.2 (2004): 121–158.
 DOI: 10.1162/0162288042879968Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Golts, Russia’s leading military commentator, summarizes the problem.
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 Herspring, Dale R. The Kremlin and the High Command: Presidential Impact on the Russian Military from Gorbachev to Putin. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.
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 A study of the prickly relations between the top political leadership and military commanders during the post-Soviet transition.
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 Miller, Steven E., and Dmitri V. Trenin, eds. The Russian Military: Power and Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.
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 Essay collection by top specialists reviewing the key dimensions of military policy and military reform.
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 Odom, William E. The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
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 Classic text on the Soviet military’s troubled transition after the end of the Cold War.
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 Sperling, Valerie. “The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel: Patriotism, Militarism, and the Russian National Idea.” Nations and Nationalism 9.2 (2003): 235–253.
 DOI: 10.1111/1469-8219.00084Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A look at the political uses of patriotism under Putin. Available online through purchase.
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 From Putin to Medvedev
 
 In 2008 Putin’s second term as president came to an end. Putin obeyed the constitution by stepping down—but rather than leave politics, he moved sideways, into the job of prime minister. He nominated his aide and protégé, the forty-three-year old lawyer Dmitry Medvedev, as president. Most observers believe that Putin still calls the shots and that despite his more liberal persona, Medvedev in reality has little room for maneuvering independent of Putin. No biography of Medvedev has yet been published, his career trajectory is summarized by Yasmann and Jensen 2008. “Go Russia!” (Medvedev 2009) lays out this leader’s world view. Milov and Nemtsov 2010, freely available on the web, is a detailed and blistering critique of Putin’s record. McFaul and Stoner-Weiss 2008 is also critical, whereas Sakwa 2008 takes a more neutral position. Orttung 2010, one of the annual Freedom House reports, provides a critical survey of the state of democracy in Russia. Colton and Hale 2009 tracks Putin’s continuing popularity. Treisman 2007 and Huskey 2010 look at the military and economic officials, respectively, in the Putin administration.
 
 Colton, Timothy J., and Henry E. Hale. “The Putin Vote: Presidential Electorates in a Hybrid Regime.” Slavic Review 68.3 (2009): 473–503.
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 Analysis of the electoral base of the Putin coalition. Available online through purchase.
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 Huskey, Eugene. “Elite Recruitment and State–Society Relations in Technocratic Authoritarian Regimes: The Russian Case.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 43.3 (2010): 363–372.
 DOI: 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2010.10.004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Through a study of top officials in the government and presidential administration, Huskey concludes that people with a business background outnumber the security personnel. Available online through purchase.
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 McFaul, Michael, and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss. “The Myth of the Authoritarian Model: How Putin’s Crackdown Holds Russia Back.” Foreign Affairs 87.1 (2008): 68–84.
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 A critical assessment of Putin’s rule. McFaul later became Barack Obama’s chief Russia advisor.
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 Medvedev, Dmitry. “Go, Russia!.” Russian Presidential Executive Office, 10 September 2009.
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 A manifesto for modernizing Russia that Medvedev published in the press.
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 Milov, Vladimir, and Boris Nemtsov. Putin: The Results: 10 Years. Moscow: Solidarnost, 2010.
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 A critical review of Putin’s presidency by the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. An unofficial translation by Dave Essel, Putin: What 10 Years of Putin Have Brought, is available online.
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 Orttung, Robert W. “Russia.” In Nations in Transit 2010: Democratization from Central Europe to Eurasia. Edited by Lisa Mootz, 435–453. New York: Freedom House, 2010.
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 The 2010 annual review of the state of Russian democracy from the New York–based think tank Freedom House.
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 Sakwa, Richard. “Putin’s Leadership: Character and Consequences.” In Special Issue: Power and Policy in Putin’s Russia. Europe-Asia Studies 60.6 (2008): 879–897.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130802161132Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A more sympathetic evaluation of Putin by the British academic Richard Sakwa.
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 Treisman, Daniel. “Putin’s Silovarchs.” Orbis 51.1 (2007): 141–153.
 DOI: 10.1016/j.orbis.2006.10.013Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Discussion of the role of former military and security personnel in Putin’s administration. Available online through purchase.
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 Yasmann, Victor, and Donald Jensen. “Putin’s Choice: A Profile of Dmitrii Medvedev.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 23 March 2008.
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 Biography of the new president.
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 The Emergence of Newly Independent States
 
 The fifteen states that emerged from the Soviet Union faced a triple transition: to build democratic political systems, to introduce market economies, and to construct new national identities. The outcomes varied widely. The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) managed to gain entry to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union; the Central Asian states slid into authoritarianism of varying types; and the development of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was stymied by armed conflict. Ukraine became a flawed democracy, whereas neighboring Belarus slid into dictatorship. Geography and political culture seemed to matter a great deal in driving these differing outcomes. Kolstø 1996 provides a pithy summary of the challenges facing the newly independent states, with a more detailed analysis provided in Kolstø 2000. In the 1990s there was a flurry of books trying to explain the historical and cultural background to the fifteen new states that had suddenly appeared on the world map. Smith 1996 is a fine example. Zevelov 2001 examines the situation of ethnic Russians who woke up to find themselves residents of new sovereign states: there were fears that Moscow might use their presence as an excuse to intervene in the new states. In Laitin 1998 the leading Stanford political scientist David Laitin studied the dynamics of assimilation for these Russian-speaking minorities, which he argued should be a swift and smooth process. Easter 1997 explains how the president–parliament architecture has played out across the region. Levitsky and Way 2002 and Way 2005 develop a theory of competitive authoritarianism, which has come to displace the “transition to democracy” paradigm as the main lens through which to view the region’s political dynamics. Hamilton and Mangott 2007 surveys the transition in the western republics, now neighbors of the European Union. Verena 2007 looks at state formation in the three Slavic states. Åslund 2002 overviews the process of market reforms.
 
 Åslund, Anders. Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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 Overview of the economic transition by the leading pro-market economist engaged in the region.
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 Easter, Gerald M. “Preference for Presidentialism: Postcommunist Regime Change in Russia and the NIS.” World Politics 49.2 (1997): 184–211.
 DOI: 10.1353/wp.1997.0002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of the choices made between presidential and parliamentary regimes. Available online through purchase.
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 Hamilton, Daniel S., and Gerhard Mangott, eds. The New Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova. Washington, DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2007.
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 Collection of essays examining the economic and strategic prospects of the western belt states.
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 Kolstø, Pål. “Nation-building in the Former USSR.” Journal of Democracy 7.1 (1996): 118–132.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.1996.0010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Article analyzing the challenges of nation building in the new states.
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 Kolstø, Pål. Political Construction Sites: Nation-Building in Russia and the Post-Soviet States. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
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 Book-length treatment by Kolstø of the various approaches to forging a new national identity in the post-Soviet states.
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 Laitin, David D. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. The Wilder House Series in Politics, History, and Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
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 The Stanford political scientist examines the dynamics of assimilation for Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.
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 Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13.2 (2002): 51–65.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2002.0026Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 This article compares the rise of hybrid, “competitive authoritarian” regimes in the post-Soviet states and other parts of the world.
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 Smith, Graham, ed. The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States. 2d ed. London and New York: Longman, 1996.
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 Edited collection that provides the background of Soviet ethnicity policy.
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 Verena, Fritz. State-building: A Comparative Study of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2007.
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 One of the few monographs that tackles a cross-country analysis.
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 Way, Lucan A. “Authoritarian State Building and the Sources of Regime Competitiveness in the Fourth Wave: The Cases of Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.” World Politics 57.2 (2005): 231–261.
 DOI: 10.1353/wp.2005.0018Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Way examines Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. By the mid-2000s there was growing recognition that these regimes were not necessarily in transition to democracy.
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 Zevelov, Igor. Russia and Its New Diasporas. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2001.
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 On the fate of the 22 million ethnic Russians living outside the borders of the Russian Federation in 1991.
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 The Color Revolutions
 
 While authoritarianism was strengthening in Putin’s Russia, a wave of revolutions swept Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004), and Kyrgyzstan (2005). Did they represent a breakthrough to genuine democracy? Why did color revolutions not take place in Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Moldova? In 2010 clear moves away from democracy could be seen in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Herd 2005 provides an introduction; Beissinger 2007, an analytical comparison. Fairbanks 2004 and Mitchell 2008 examine Georgia, whereas Huskey 2005 deals with Kyrgyzstan. For the Ukrainian case, see The Orange Revolution and Its Aftermath. Kuzio 2006 includes articles on each of the cases.
 
 Beissinger, Mark R. “Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions.” Perspectives on Politics 5.2 (2007): 259–276.
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 Analysis of the contagion effect in the spread of color revolutions.
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 Fairbanks, Charles H. “Georgia’s Rose Revolution.” Journal of Democracy 15.2 (2004): 110–124.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0025Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Explanation of the events in Georgia.
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 Herd, Graeme P. “Colorful Revolutions and the CIS: ‘Manufactured’ versus ‘Managed’ Democracy?” Problems of Post-Communism 52.2 (2005): 3–18.
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 Overview of the phenomenon.
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 Huskey, Eugene. “Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution: Interview with Roza Otunbayeva.” Demokratizatsiya 13.4 (2005): 483–489.
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 Account of the overthrow of President Akayev by one of the opposition leaders.
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 Kuzio, Taras, ed. Special Issue: Democratic Revolutions in Post-Communist States. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 39.3 (2006).
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 Collection of articles on each country involved.
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 Mitchell, Lincoln A. Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia’s Rose Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
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 Analysis of the causes and aftermath of the 2003 “Rose Revolution,” with a particular focus on US aid and democracy promotion efforts.
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 Ukraine
 
 Ukraine is the largest of the post-Soviet states, with 46 million people, and is strategically located between Russia and Europe. Wilson 2009 is the best single-volume introduction. D’Anieri, et al. 1999 provides a detailed analysis of the 1990s, whereas D’Anieri 2007 is an overview of Ukraine’s turbulent political history through 2005. Powerful business elites threaten the integrity of Ukraine’s scrappy democracy, while the political divide between pro-European West Ukraine and Russian-speaking East Ukraine and Crimea has led to political deadlock, as described in Barrington and Herron 2004. Leonid Kuchma, the president from 1994 to 2005, accumulated considerable power, as is succinctly explained in Darden 2001. Balmaceda 2008 tracks the political bargaining over the pipelines that cross Ukraine, ferrying Russian oil and gas to European markets.
 
 Balmaceda, Margarita M. Energy Dependency, Politics and Corruption in the Former Soviet Union: Russia’s Power, Oligarchs’ Profits and Ukraine’s Missing Energy Policy, 1995–2006. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 Ukraine sits astride the main export pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to Europe. Ongoing price disputes have led to several interruptions in the gas supply since the turn of the 21st century.
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 Barrington, Lowell W., and Erik S. Herron. “One Ukraine or Many? Regionalism in Ukraine and Its Political Consequences.” Nationalities Papers 32.1 (2004): 53–86.
 DOI: 10.1080/0090599042000186179Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A look at the regional divisions that frame much of the antagonism in Ukrainian politics.
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 D’Anieri, Paul, Robert Kravchuk, and Taras Kuzio. Politics and Society in Ukraine. Westview Series on the Post-Soviet Republics. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999.
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 Good overview of the challenges facing Ukraine in the 1990s.
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 D’Anieri, Paul. Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2007.
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 The best introduction to contemporary politics.
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 Darden, Keith. “Blackmail as a Tool of State Domination: Ukraine under Kuchma.” East European Constitutional Review 10.2–3 (2001): 67–71.
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 Pivotal essay identifying the logic underlying President Kuchma’s regime.
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 Wilson, Andrew. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. 3d ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
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 Broad introduction to Ukraine’s history by a leading British authority on Ukraine.
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 The Orange Revolution and Its Aftermath
 
 In 2004, through street protests, the opposition succeeded in preventing President Kuchma from rigging the election to ensure the victory of his chosen successor, Viktor Yanukovych. The pro-Western candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, came to power, in what came to be known as the Orange Revolution. However, hopes that the Orange Revolution meant a transition to real democracy in Ukraine faded as the leaders of the pro-Western camp jousted for power. In 2010 the pro-Russian Yanukovych won the presidency in a more or less clean election. Karatnycky 2005 and Åslund and McFaul 2006 provide enthusiastic accounts that portray the 2004 events as presaging a new wave of democracy in the post-Soviet space. Way 2005 digs down to look for the structural causes of the turnover. Hale 2010 and Gromadzki, et al. 2010 assess the reasons for the post-2004 political stalemate. Lane 2008 offers a skeptical perspective.
 
 Åslund, Anders, and Michael McFaul, eds. Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine’s Democratic Breakthrough. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006.
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 The Orange Revolution was welcomed in the West as a second chance to build a real democracy in Ukraine.
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 Gromadzki, Grzegorz, Veronika Movchan, Mykola Riabchuk, et al. Beyond Colors: Assets and Liabilities of “Post-Orange” Ukraine. Kiev, Ukraine, Russia: International Renaissance Foundation, 2010.
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 An assessment of the Orange Revolution five years on by a team of international experts.
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 Hale, Henry E. “The Uses of Divided Power.” Journal of Democracy 21.3 (2010): 84–98.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.0.0174Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 On the Yanukovych victory and the ongoing problem of ill-defined division of power between president and parliament.
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 Karatnycky, Adrian. “Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.” Foreign Affairs 84.2 (2005): 35–52.
 DOI: 10.2307/20034274Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Introduction to the key events and players. Available online by subscription.
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 Lane, David. “The Orange Revolution: ‘People’s Revolution’ or Revolutionary Coup?” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 10.4 (2008): 525–549.
 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-856X.2008.00343.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 British academic David Lane presents a rare skeptical view, treating the Orange Revolution as an intra-elite feud.
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 Way, Lucan. “Kuchma’s Failed Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 16.2 (2005): 131–145.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2005.0037Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A political scientist analyzes the structural characteristics of the revolution.
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 The Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania)
 
 In the late 1980s the Baltic states struggled to regain the independence that they had experienced between the two world wars. Lieven 1994 provides an eyewitness account of the independence movements, which played a pivotal role in the downfall of the Soviet Union. After 1991 the three states rapidly made the transition to liberal democracy and market capitalism and went on to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Pettai and Zielonka 2003 examines the process of European Union entry. In the early 21st century, political problems remain regarding the substantial minority of ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia, most of whom were denied citizenship. This is analyzed in Barrington 1999 and Galbreath 2006. Smith 2002, Dreifelds 1996, and Lane 2002 are monographs on Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, respectively.
 
 Barrington, Lowell W. “The Making of Citizenship Policy in the Baltic States.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 13.2 (1999): 159–199.
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 Detailed account of the evolution of citizenship policy, under pressure from the European Union to be more inclusive. Available online through purchase.
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 Dreifelds, Juris. Latvia in Transition. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511628344Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A look at Latvia’s transition from the Soviet Union.
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 Galbreath, David J. “From Nationalism to Nation-Building: Latvian Politics and Minority Policy.” Nationalities Papers 34.4 (2006): 383–406.
 DOI: 10.1080/00905990600841918Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Citizenship and language policy in Latvia. Available online through purchase.
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 Lane, Thomas. Lithuania: Stepping Westward. Postcommunist States and Nations. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
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 Lithuania faced fewer political problems that Estonia or Latvia, in large part because its Russian minority was much smaller.
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 Lieven, Anatol. The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence. 2d ed. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1994.
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 A lively account by the journalist Anatol Lieven of the successful struggle for independence from the Soviet Union.
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 Pettai, Vello, and Jan Zielonka, eds. The Road to the European Union. Vol. 2, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Europe in Change. Manchester, UK, and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003.
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 The process of incorporating the three Baltic states into the European Union.
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 Smith, David J. Estonia: Independence and European Integration. Postcommunist States and Nations. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
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 An account of Estonia’s first ten years of independence.
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 Belarus
 
 Belarus has been described as the “last dictatorship in Europe.” Unlike its Baltic neighbors, Belarus, under the authoritarian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, turned its back on Europe and called for union with Russia. Marples 1999, Marples 2005, and Marples 2006 together are a reliable guide to Belarus’s unique political trajectory. Leshchenko 2008 and Bekus 2010 probe into the ambiguities of Belarusian national identity, which are key to understanding Lukashenko’s political longevity. Ioffe 2008 tries to counter Western stereotyping of Belarus.
 
 Bekus, Nelly. Struggle over Identity: The Official and the Alternative “Belarusianness.” Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2010.
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 A book-length study of the complex evolution of Belarusian national identity.
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 Ioffe, Grigory. Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign Policy Misses the Mark. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.
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 Ioffe tries to counter Western stereotyping of Belarus.
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 Leshchenko, Natalia. “The National Ideology and the Basis of the Lukashenka Regime in Belarus.” Europe-Asia Studies 60.8 (2008): 1419–1433.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130802292234Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Leshchenko argues that Lukashenka succeeded in part because he was able to forge a new Belarusian identity incorporating nostalgia for the Soviet past. Available online through purchase.
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 Marples, David R. Belarus: A Denationalized Nation. Postcommunist States and Nations. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.
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 An objective assessment of the first decade of independence.
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 Marples, David R. “Europe’s Last Dictatorship: The Roots and Perspectives of Authoritarianism in ‘White Russia.’” Europe-Asia Studies 57.6 (2005): 895–908.
 DOI: 10.1080/1080/09668130500199509Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Overview of the rise of Lukashenka’s regime. Available online through purchase.
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 Marples, David R. “Color Revolutions: The Belarus Case.” In Special Issue: Democratic Revolutions in Post-Communist States. Edited by Taras Kuzio, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 39.3 (2006): 351–364.
 DOI: 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2006.06.004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Marples explains why a color revolution was unlikely in Belarus. Available online through purchase.
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 Moldova
 
 The Romanian province of Moldova was seized by Stalin in 1940 and gained its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In the early 21st century it is the poorest country in Europe, undecided as to whether to try to merge with Romania. Complicating its future is the province of Transnistria, populated mainly by Slavs, which broke away from Moldovan control in 1992 and which remains an unrecognized state, loyal to Russia. King 2000, Quinlan 2004, and Way 2002 cover the political history. King 2003 and Quinlan 2008 look at the political deadlock over Transnistria. Protsyk 2005 looks for a solution through the prism of federalism theory. Mungiu-Pippidi and Munteanu 2009 describes the failure of a would-be color revolution in Moldova in 2009.
 
 King, Charles. The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution, 2000.
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 Historical introduction to the region.
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 King, Charles. “Marking Time in the Middle Ground: Contested Identities and Moldovan Foreign Policy.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19.3 (2003): 60–82.
 DOI: 10.1080/13523270300660018Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Another view on the political standoff over Transnistria. Available online through purchase.
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 Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina, and Igor Munteanu. “Moldova’s ‘Twitter Revolution.’” Journal of Democracy 20.3 (2009): 136–142.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.0.0102Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 There were brief hopes for a color revolution in Moldova in 2009, but the youth protests in the wake of parliamentary elections (the so-called Twitter revolution) failed to break the political stalemate.
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 Protsyk, Oleh. “Federalism and Democracy in Moldova.” Post-Soviet Affairs 21.1 (2005): 72–90.
 DOI: 10.2747/1060-586X.21.1.72Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A political science perspective on the options for granting autonomy to culturally distinct regions in Moldova.
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 Quinlan, Paul D. “Back to the Future: An Overview of Moldova under Voronin.” Demokratizatsiya 12.4 (2004): 485–504.
 DOI: 10.3200/DEMO.12.4.485-504Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 The Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin was elected president by the Parliament in 2001, and he has dominated the Moldovan political scene since then.
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 Quinlan, Paul D. “A Foot in Both Camps: Moldova and the Transnistrian Conundrum from the Kozak Memorandum.” East European Quarterly (Summer 2008): 129–160
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 Analysis of the stalled negotiations over Transnistria.
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 Way, Lucan. “Pluralism by Default in Moldova.” Journal of Democracy 13.4 (2002): 127–141.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2002.0081Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Pro-Western and pro-Communist forces are fairly evenly balanced in the Moldovan political system.
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 Central Asia
 
 Post-Soviet Central Asia has attracted a great deal of attention, as the region is a focus of rivalry between world powers, in a revival of the so-called Great Game of the late 19th century. The region is valued for its deposits of oil and natural gas and because of its strategic location alongside Iran, Afghanistan, and western China. The democratic transition in Central Asia has failed, owing to a combination of corrupt, clan-based elites; ethnic tensions; and dependence on energy exports (the “resource curse”). Olcott 2005 and Dawisha and Parrott 1997 provide introductions to the politics of the newly independent states, whereas Kotkin 2002 caustically questions their national aspirations. Collins 2002 and Collins 2006 explain the revival of ethnic clan networks as key structures in the politics in the region. Kazantsev 2008 argues that Russia’s policy toward the region has been ineffective. Dave 2010 is a comprehensive collection of all the relevant materials on Central Asian politics. Lewis 2008 offers a readable introduction, with a focus on crisis developments, such as the 2005 Andijon massacre, from the perspective of US diplomatic engagement with the region.
 
 Collins, Kathleen. “Clans, Pacts, and Politics in Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 13.3 (2002): 137–152.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2002.0041Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Important article outlining the persistence of clan identities among Central Asian elites despite Soviet efforts to eradicate the phenomenon.
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 Collins, Kathleen. Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511510014Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Book-length treatment of the revival of clan politics.
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 Dave, Bhavna, ed. The Politics of Modern Central Asia. New York: Routledge, 2010.
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 This four-volume collection, which runs to 1,776 pages, is a carefully selected compendium that reprints all the significant contributions to the study of Central Asia since independence. Most of the articles were published in journals; some are chapters or extracts from books.
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 Dawisha, Karen, and Bruce Parrott, eds. Conflict, Cleavage and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Democratization and Authoritarianism in Postcommunist Societies. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
 DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511559204Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Collection of chapters covering each country of the region as it embarked upon independence.
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 Jones Luong, Pauline, ed. The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2004.
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 Collection of essays on various aspects of the transition.
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 Kazantsev, Andrei. “Russian Policy in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea Region.” Europe-Asia Studies 60.6 (2008): 1073–1088.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130802180983Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A critical overview of Russian policy toward Central Asia since 1991. Kazantsev argues that Russian policy has been indecisive and contradictory.
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 Kotkin, Stephen. “Trashcanistan. A Tour through the Wreckage of the Soviet Empire.” New Republic, 15 April 2002, 26–38.
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 A provocative essay casting a skeptical eye on the new states of Central Asia.
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 Lewis, David. The Temptations of Tyranny in Central Asia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
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 Introduction to some of the salient controversial issues, from the former head of the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization covering Central Asia.
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 Olcott, Martha Brill. Central Asia’s Second Chance. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.
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 This survey of the region’s prospects is written with a view to Washington policymakers’ strategic interests in the region.
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 Islam in Central Asia
 
 Muslim identities persisted in Central Asia despite Soviet secularization campaigns. After 1991 tensions grew between the traditional, tolerant Islam of the region and the new radical Islamist doctrines spreading from Afghanistan and other points south. Islamists formed one of the sides in the civil war that was waged in Tajikistan from 1992 1997. Roy 2000, Khalid 2007, and Naumkin 2005 offer general surveys, whereas Karagiannis 2010 profiles one relatively moderate Islamist movement.
 
 Karagiannis, Emmanuel. Political Islam in Central Asia: The Challenge of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Central Asian Studies series. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
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 Analysis of one relatively moderate Islamic revival movement, banned in all the Central Asian states.
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 Khalid, Adeeb. Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
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 Khalid is another respected authority on Islam in the region.
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 Naumkin, Vitaly V. Radical Islam in Central Asia: Between Pen and Rifle. The Soviet Bloc and After. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
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 A Russian specialist surveys the history of Islam in the region and takes the story up through to the present day, including a detailed analysis of the Tajik civil war in the 1990s.
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 Roy, Olivier. The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
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 A French expert on Islam provides an overview of the region.
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 Economic Challenges Facing Central Asia
 
 Some of the countries are resource rich, others are resource poor, but all face the challenges of corrupt leaders and geographical isolation from global markets. LeVine 2007 and Kleveman 2004 provide popular accounts of the Great Game for Central Asia’s resources. Jones Luong and Weinthal 2001 offers a structural/institutional analysis. Spechler 2008 and Pomfret 2006 provide clear overviews of the varying economic trajectories of the five Central Asian countries.
 
 Jones Luong, Pauline, and Erika Weinthal. “Prelude to the Resource Curse: Explaining Oil and Gas Development in the Soviet Successor States.” Comparative Political Studies 34.4 (2001): 367–399.
 DOI: 10.1177/0010414001034004002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Central Asia leaders had to make strategic choices about how to develop their energy wealth, selecting foreign partners and seeking to insulate their economic development against the effects of oil dependence. Available online through purchase.
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 Kleveman, Lutz. The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia. New York: Grove, 2004.
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 The German journalist Kleveman plays up the strategic rivalry for influence over the region.
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 LeVine, Steve. The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. New York: Random House, 2007.
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 Lively account by a former Wall Street Journal correspondent of the race to develop Central Asia’s oil and gas. LeVine also maintains a blog.
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 Pomfret, Richard. The Central Asian Economies since Independence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
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 Authoritative survey of the region’s economic development.
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 Spechler, Martin C. “The Economies of Central Asia: A Survey.” Comparative Economic Studies 50.1 (2008): 30–52.
 DOI: 10.1057/ces.2008.3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Overview of the region’s economic performance since independence.
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 Kazakhstan
 
 Kazakhstan has experienced an economic boom, thanks to its mineral resources, while the transition to democracy has been put on hold. The founding president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, still plays a pivotal role, opening the door to Western investment yet also maintaining good relations with Moscow. While promoting the Kazakh nation, Nazarbayev has tried to mollify the Russian minority that makes up one third of the republic’s population. Olcott 2010 overviews the first decade of independence, from the perspective of Washington. Schatz 2004 and Schatz 2008 explore the kin networks and clan politics that underlie much of the politics in Kazakhstan, whereas Dave 2007 examines the nation-building process. Ostrowski 2010 tracks the pivotal role of the oil sector in Kazakhstan’s rise, whereas Nazpary 2002 takes a critical stance. Murphy 2006 unpacks the network that unites the ruling elite.
 
 Dave, Bhavna. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, Language and Power. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
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 Dave investigates the delicate balance between Russians and Kazakhs and the rebuilding of Kazakh national identity since 1991, tracing the roots of these processes to the Soviet era.
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 Murphy, Jonathan. “Illusory Transition? Elite Reconstitution in Kazakhstan, 1989–2002.” Europe-Asia Studies 58.4 (2006): 523–554.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130600652092Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of the elite coalition forged by Nazarbayev. Available online by subscription.
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 Nazpary, Joma. Post-Soviet Chaos: Violence and Dispossession in Kazakhstan. London and Sterling, VA: Pluto, 2002.
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 A critical take on the Nazarbayev regime, stressing the social costs of the transition.
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 Olcott, Martha Brill. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise? Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2010.
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 Balanced assessment by the leading US authority on Central Asia.
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 Ostrowski, Wojciech. Politics and Oil in Kazakhstan. Central Asian Studies series. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
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 Analysis of Kazakhstan’s oil-led development boom.
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 Schatz, Edward. Modern Clan Politics: The Power of “Blood” in Kazakhstan and Beyond. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
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 Clan politics looms large in understanding Nazarbayev’s ability to maintain political stability.
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 Schatz, Edward. “Transnational Image Making and Soft Authoritarian Kazakhstan.” Slavic Review 67.1 (2008): 50–62.
 DOI: 10.2307/27652766Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of Nazarbayev’s nuanced and pragmatic politics.
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 Kyrgyzstan
 
 Kyrgyzstan was the only country in Central Asia to embrace democracy and market reform in the early 1990s, under its liberal president, Askar Akayev. However, the economy stagnated, corruption mounted, and Akayev was toppled in the 2005 “Tulip Revolution.” Popular unrest also brought down his successor in 2010. Anderson 1999 and Engvall 2007 provide basic introductions, Huskey 2002 profiles the pivotal first president, and Fumagalli 2007 unpacks the ethnic complexities of the Fergana Valley. Marat 2006 narrates the Tulip Revolution, whereas Huskey 2010 explains its aftershocks five years later.
 
 Anderson, John. Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia’s Island of Democracy? Postcommunist States and Nations. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1999.
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 Slim but informative introduction to Kyrgyzstan’s transition to independence.
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 Engvall, Johan. “Kyrgyzstan: Anatomy of a State.” Problems of Post-Communism 54.4 (2007): 33–45.
 DOI: 10.2753/PPC1075-8216540403Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Useful summary of the political situation.
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 Fumagalli, Matteo. “Framing Ethnic Minority Mobilisation in Central Asia: The Cases of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.” Europe-Asia Studies 59.4 (2007): 567–590.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130701289869Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Study of ethnic antagonism in the Fergana Valley region. Available online by subscription.
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 Huskey, Eugene. “An Economy of Authoritarianism? Askar Akaev and Presidential Leadership in Kyrgyzstan.” In Power and Change in Central Asia. Edited by Sally N. Cummings, 74–96. Politics in Asia. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
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 A careful analysis of the consolidation of the ruling elite in Kyrgyzstan by a US academic who observed the process firsthand.
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 Huskey, Eugene. “If You Want to Understand Kyrgyzstan, Read This.” Slate, 9 April 2010.
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 Explanation of the rioting targeting ethnic Uzbeks that gripped the southern city of Osh in April 2010.
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 Marat, Erica. The Tulip Revolution: Kyrgyzstan One Year After. Washington, DC: Jamestown Foundation, 2006.
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 Collection of reports filed by Erica Marat during and after the Tulip Revolution.
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 Tajikistan
 
 Tajikistan fell into civil war in the 1990s, with a 1997 peace brokered by Russia and Iran. Although the peace has held as of the early 21st century, the country remains impoverished, isolated, and threatened by the drug trafficking, political banditry, and Islamic radicalism that emanates from nearby Afghanistan. GlobalSecurity.org and Akiner 2002 provide clear summaries of the civil war, whereas Jonson 2006 explains some of its historical and ethnographic complexities. Bliss 2006 and Heathershaw 2009 explore the slow process of postwar reconstruction.
 
 Akiner, Shirin. Tajikistan: Disintegration or Reconciliation? Central Asian and Caucasian Prospects. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002.
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 A short booklet on the civil war by the London University professor Shirin Akiner.
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 Bliss, Frank. Social and Economic Change in the Pamirs (Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan). Translated by Nicola Pacult and Sonia Guss. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
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 Detailed analysis of the fate of one Tajik region during and after the civil war.
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 “Tajikistan Civil War.” GlobalSecurity.org.
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 Factual narrative of the civil war; includes maps.
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 Heathershaw, John. Post-Conflict Tajikistan: The Politics of Peacebuilding and the Emergence of Legitimate Order. Central Asian Studies series. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
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 Analysis of peace building in postwar Tajikistan.
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 Jonson, Lena. Tajikistan in the New Central Asia: Geopolitics, Great Power Rivalry and Radical Islam. International Library of Central Asian Studies 2. London and New York: Tauris, 2006.
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 Analysis of the civil war and its aftermath from a Swedish scholar who served as an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observer in Tajikistan.
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 Turkmenistan
 
 Turkmenistan produced one of the most surreal dictatorships of modern times, under President Saparmurad Niyazov. The country’s vast natural gas reserves make it a key prize for Russia, China, and Western energy companies, but Niyazov, who died in 2006, strove to minimize foreign influence. Most accounts, such as Murphy 2002 and Kleveman 2004, concentrate on Niyazov’s bizarre personality cult. Kuru 2002 looks at Turkmen national identity, whereas Anceschi 2008 analyzes Niyazov’s diplomatic balancing act.
 
 Anceschi, Luca. Turkmenistan’s Foreign Policy: Positive Neutrality and the Consolidation of the Turkmen Regime. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 An examination of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy.
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 Kleveman, Lutz. “Stalin’s Disneyland: Turkmenistan.” In The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia. By Lutz Kleveman, 144–164. New York: Grove, 2004.
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 The absurdities of Niyazov’s dictatorial rule proved an irresistible topic for Western journalists.
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 Kuru, Ahmet T. “Between the State and Cultural Zones: Nation Building in Turkmenistan.” Central Asian Survey 21.1 (2002): 71–90.
 DOI: 10.1080/02634930220127955Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Creating a new Turkmen identity was part of Niyazov’s strategy.
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 Murphy, Culleen. “My Way: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Turkmenbashi.” Atlantic Monthly, November 2002, 22–24.
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 A profile of the surreal reign of Saparmurad Niyakov.
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 Uzbekistan
 
 Uzbekistan is the largest state in Central Asia by population, still dependent on cotton exports, though with some natural gas development. Since independence it has been tightly controlled by President Islam Karimov, who has ruthlessly repressed independence Islamist movements, and the regional uprising in the city of Andizhan in 2005. Melvin 2000 surveys Karimov’s consolidation of power in the 1990s, whereas Murray 2006 provides a racy account of the sharply increased political repression of the early 2000s. McGlinchey 2007 shows how ordinary Muslims got caught up in the crackdown. Spechler 2008 argues that Uzbekistan’s rejection of neoliberal economic reforms might have ameliorated the impact of the “transition recession.” Human rights groups are an important source of information about the extent of political repression, such as International Crisis Group 2001 and Human Rights Watch 2005. Adams 2010 takes an ethnographic approach to Karimov’s nation building.
 
 Adams, Laura L. The Spectacular State: Culture and National Identity in Uzbekistan. Politics, History, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
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 Study of nation building in Uzbekistan through symbols and rituals.
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 Cooley, Alexander. “Base Politics.” Foreign Affairs 84.6 (2005): 79–92.
 DOI: 10.2307/20031778Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 An account of the eviction of US forces from the Karshi-Kanabad (K2) air base.
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 Human Rights Watch. “Bullets Were Falling Like Rain: The Andijan Massacre, May 13, 2005.” Human Rights Watch, 6 June 2005.
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 Detailed account of the failed uprising in the city of Andizhan, where government troops reportedly slew seven hundred civilians.
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 International Crisis Group. Central Asia: Uzbekistan at Ten—Repression and Instability. Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2001.
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 Survey of the dictatorial regime from Western think tank.
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 McGlinchey, Eric. “Divided Faith: Trapped between State and Islam in Uzbekistan.” In Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present.” Edited by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca, 305–318. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
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 Rich ethnographic account of the struggle between Uzbek worshippers and the intrusive state.
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 Melvin, Neil J. Uzbekistan: Transition to Authoritarianism on the Silk Road. Postcommunist States and Nations. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 2000.
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 A brief introduction to post-independence Uzbekistan.
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 Murray, Craig. Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2006.
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 Gripping autobiographical account of the political repression in Uzbekistan by the former British ambassador.
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 Spechler, Martin C. The Political Economy of Reform in Central Asia: Uzbekistan under Authoritarianism. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
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 A US economist examines the evidence for an “Uzbek model,” a development path that avoided “shock therapy” reforms.
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 The Caucasus States
 
 Conflict erupted within Georgia and between Armenia and Azerbaijan as ethnic groups in various regions fought to secede from the newly independent states. These conflicts remained unresolved through the first decade of the 2000s, leaving the new states in an uneasy situation of neither peace nor war. While maintaining a facade of democracy, each country fell under authoritarian presidents to varying degrees. Fairbanks 2001 gives a clear overview of the post-independence decade, whereas de Waal 2010 provides the broad historical context. King 2001, Cornell 2002, and Kolstø and Blakkisrud 2008 find common features in the region’s secessionist struggles. Akiner 2004 is a collection of essays on regional developments.
 
 Akiner, Shirin, ed. The Caspian: Politics, Energy, and Security. Central Asia Research Forum. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004.
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 Overview of the strategic and economic development issues in the region.
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 Cornell, Svante E. “Autonomy as a Source of Conflict: Caucasian Conflicts in Theoretical Perspective.” World Politics 54.2 (2002): 245–276.
 DOI: 10.1353/wp.2002.0002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A more theoretical take on the secessionist wars, looking at the sources in Soviet federalism. Available online through purchase.
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 de Waal, Thomas. The Caucasus: An Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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 Introduction to the region’s history as a backdrop to the later conflicts. More than half the book addresses the post-1991 period.
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 Fairbanks, Charles H. “Disillusionment in the Caucasus and Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 12.4 (2001): 49–56.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2001.0070Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 A handy overview of developments in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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 King, Charles. “The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia’s Unrecognized States.” World Politics 53.4 (2001): 524–552.
 DOI: 10.1353/wp.2001.0017Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 The anatomy of the secessionist conflicts in the Caucasus, plus Transnistria in Moldova.
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 Kolstø, Pål, and Helge Blakkisrud. “Living with Non-recognition: State- and Nation-building in South Caucasian Quasi-states.” Europe-Asia Studies 60.3 (2008): 483–509.
 DOI: 10.1080/09668130801948158Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 The anomalous position of the independent but unrecognized statelets after nearly 20 years.
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 Georgia
 
 Georgia lost control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s. After the “Rose Revolution” ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003, the new president, Mikheil Saakashvili, hoped Western support would enable him to unify the country. His military brinkmanship backfired in August 2008, when the Georgian army was swiftly defeated by the Russian forces that intervened in defense of South Ossetia. Wheatley 2005 and Areshidze 2007 are monographs devoted to independent Georgia. Mitchell 2009 is the most comprehensive analysis of the causes and consequences of the Rose Revolution. Legvold and Coppieters 2005 assesses Georgia’s prospects after the Rose Revolution. The tragic 2008 war is detailed in Lanskoy and Areshidze 2008 and Cornell and Starr 2009, Allison 2008 analyzes Russia’s actions in the war, and Cornell and Nilsson 2009 tracks postwar developments.
 
 Allison, Roy. “Russia Resurgent? Moscow’s Campaign to ‘Coerce Georgia to Peace.’” International Affairs 84.6 (2008): 1145–1171.
 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2008.00762.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Analysis of Russian behavior in the conflict.
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 Areshidze, Irkaly. Democracy and Autocracy in Eurasia: Georgia in Transition. East Eurasian Political Economy and Public Policy series. Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2007.
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 History of independent Georgia.
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 Coppieters, Bruno, and Robert Legvold, eds. Statehood and Security: Georgia after the Rose Revolution. American Academy Studies in Global Security. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005.
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 Survey of domestic political developments and the security challenges.
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 Cornell, Svante E., and Niklas Nilsson. “Georgian Politics since the August 2008 War.” Demokratizatsiya 17.3 (2009): 251–268.
 DOI: 10.3200/DEMO.17.3.251-268Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Aftermath of the 2008 war.
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 Cornell, Svante E., and S. Frederick Starr, eds. The Guns of August 2008: Russia’s War in Georgia. Studies of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2009.
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 Detailed account of the conflict by authors sympathetic to the Georgian perspective.
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 Lanskoy, Miriam, and Giorgi Areshidze. “Georgia’s Year of Turmoil.” Journal of Democracy 19.4 (2008): 154–168.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.0.0034Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Summary of the political situation during and after the 2008 war.
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 Mitchell, Lincoln A. Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia’s Rose Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.
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 Analysis of the causes and aftermath of the 2003 Rose Revolution, with a particular focus on US aid and democracy promotion efforts.
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 Wheatley, Jonathan. Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution: Delayed Transition in the Former Soviet Union. Post-Soviet Politics. Aldershot, UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.
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 History of post-independence Georgia.
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 Azerbaijan
 
 Azerbaijan lost the province of Karabakh to Armenian insurgents in a bloody war in 1992. A flood of oil wealth, facilitated by the 2004 opening of an export pipeline across Georgia, to Turkey, raised hopes that continued diplomatic pressure would force Armenia to restore the province to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has increased its military spending, but the international community presses Baku not to start a new war. On the domestic front, President Heydar Aliyev skillfully consolidated power in his own hands, so much so that he was able to pass on the presidency to his son, Ilham, upon his death, in 2003. De Waal 2004 provides a balanced and detailed history of the Karabakh war, whereas Goltz 1999 provides an idiosyncratic account from the Azerbaijani side. Van der Leeuw 2000 surveys Azerbaijan after a decade of independence. Altstadt 2003, Alieva 2006, and Rasizade 2003 examine the consolidation of power by the Aliyev family. Aliyev 2008 examines the state of Azerbaijan’s oil-driven economy.
 
 Alieva, Leila. “Azerbaijan’s Frustrating Elections.” Journal of Democracy 17.2 (2006): 147–160.
 DOI: 10.1353/jod.2006.0021Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 President Ilham Aliyev prevented the opposition from winning seats in parliamentary elections.
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 Aliyev, Fuad. “From Stabilization to Marketization: The Political Economy of Reforms in Azerbaijan.” Demokratizatsiya 16.2 (2008): 163–182.
 DOI: 10.3200/DEMO.16.2.163-182Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 Detailed account of economic policies in Azerbaijan since independence.
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 Altstadt, Audrey L. “Azerbaijan and Aliev: A Long History and an Uncertain Future.” Problems of Post-Communism 50.5 (2003): 3–13.
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 In 2003 the strongman president Heydar Aliyev was succeeded by his son, Ilham.
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 de Waal, Thomas. Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
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 Illuminating and authoritative journalist’s account of the war over Karabakh.
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 Goltz, Thomas. Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999.
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 Vivid eyewitness account of the birth of Azerbaijan and the war over Karabakh.
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 Rasizade, Alec. “Azerbaijan in Transition to the ‘New Age of Democracy.’” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 36.3 (2003): 345–372.
 DOI: 10.1016/S0967-067X(03)00043-6Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
 On the consolidation of authoritarianism in Baku. Available online through purchase.
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 van der Leeuw, Charles. Azerbaijan: A Quest for Identity: A Short History. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
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 Overview of the history of Azerbaijan.
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 Armenia
 
 Armenia’s transition to independence was closely linked to the struggle of Armenians living in Karabakh for independence from Azerbaijan. Armenia won the war, but the need to maintain a military deterrent against Azerbaijan and the effects of the trade blockade introduced by that country have devastated Armenia’s economy—and corroded its democracy. Masih and Krikorian 1999 covers the Karabakh conflict and the first decade of independence, whereas Ishkanian 2008a takes the story up through the stagnation of the 2000s. Ishkanian 2008b examines the most recent presidential election, which saw further consolidation of Armenia’s authoritarian presidency.
 
 Ishkanian, Armine. Democracy Building and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia. London and New York: Routledge, 2008a.
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 Tracking the stagnant political situation in Armenia.
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 Ishkanian, Armine. “Democracy Contested: Armenia’s Fifth Presidential Elections.” openDemocracy.net, 4 March 2008b.
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 Serzh Sarkisyan was elected president in February 2008, but the opposition cried foul and took to the streets in protest.
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 Masih, Joseph R., and Robert O. Krikorian. Armenia: At the Crossroads. Postcommunist States and Nations. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic, 1999.
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 Armenian society rallied to secure victory in the war over the province of Karabakh but ended up with a strongly centralized political leadership.
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 News Sources on Russia
 
 As Western news coverage of Russia and the post-Soviet states continues to shrink, students will increasingly turn to websites for up-to-date information and analysis. The problem is that many of these websites are highly partisan—either pro- or antigovernment. The Moscow Times is a daily with reliable coverage of major developments and a lively op-ed page. Johnson’s Russia List distributes a tsunami of press reports on Russia through a daily mailing. Itar-Tass and RIA Novosti are wire services; Russia Profile, a magazine; and Russia Today, an English language TV station: all these sources are Kremlin controlled and determined to put a positive, Russia-friendly spin on the news.
 
 Itar-Tass.
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 Official news agency; detailed daily coverage.
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 Johnson’s Russia List.
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 A comprehensive daily compilation of news reports on Russia, free to registered subscribers. A must-read for Russia watchers.
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 Kremlin: President of Russia.
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 The Russian president’s official website, with full transcripts of speeches and much other useful information (in English).
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 The Moscow Times.
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 Moscow’s English language daily newspaper, the best one-stop source of news and commentary.
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 RIA Novosti.
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 Official news agency; detailed daily coverage.
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 Russia Profile.
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 A weekly magazine format, with pro-Kremlin features and commentary.
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 Russia Today.
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 English language TV channel, with coverage ranging from human interest stories to crude Kremlin propaganda.
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 Independent or Opposition-backed News Sources
 
 These English language blogs give people who cannot read the Russian blogosphere the chance to keep abreast of the latest scandals and outrages. The Other Russia website is maintained by the leading Russian opposition movement. La Russophobe and Bears and Vodka offer more idiosyncratic responses to current developments by veteran Russia watchers. Russia: Other Points of View is an effort to counter what its founders regard as systematic anti-Russian bias in the Western media.
 
 Bears and Vodka.
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 Witty and irreverent blog about pop culture and daily life.
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 La Russophobe.
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 A lively blog, started in 2006, that focuses on Russia’s democratic deficit.
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 The Other Russia.
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 A steady stream of political news from the leading opposition group, including quite detailed information on activities in the regions. There are few alternative sources for this information.
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 Russia: Other Points of View.
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 Blog by a US academic criticizing US media coverage of Russia.
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 Independent Think Tanks
 
 The think tank world is only thinly developed within the post-Soviet space. The Carnegie Moscow Center is funded by a liberal US foundation. openDemocracy is run by European liberal-socialists, and the Eurasia Daily Monitor comes out of the ultraconservative, Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.
 
 Carnegie Moscow Center.
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 Site of the leading independent think tank in Moscow.
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 Eurasia Daily Monitor.
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 The main publication on the post-Soviet space from the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative Washington, DC, think tank.
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 openDemocracy.
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 Liberal European commentary on current events in Russia.
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 News Sources on the Post-Soviet States
 
 There are some Western-based sites that carry short reports on news from the region. There are also a multitude of websites run by independent analysts and opposition activists in each country, too numerous to list here. They rely on a mixture of native journalists and Western stringers located in the countries in question, supplemented by commentary and analysis from Western academics. Radio Liberty is politically aligned with the interests of the US government and keeps up a daily flow of news. Eurasianet and Transitions Online are weekly magazines, and the Eurasia Daily Monitor is a daily bulletin that tends to show support for democratic opposition forces and has more selective coverage than Radio Liberty. Russian Analytical Digest is a monthly with academic analysis. International Crisis Group offers weekly updates and occasional very thorough reports of wars and ethnic conflicts. BBC Country Profiles is an archive of the history, politics, and economies of various countries, whereas Freedom House is looked to for its annual rating of countries’ democratic progress or lack thereof. Freedom House describes itself as an advocacy organization, so it does have its own political agenda.
 
 BBC Country Profiles.
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 Archive of recent stories about each country, plus historical time lines.
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 Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst.
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 News and analysis on Central Asia and the Caucasus.
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 Eurasia Daily Monitor.
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 Daily analysis from the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, DC, think tank.
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 Eurasianet.
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 Analytical reports on current developments in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
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 Freedom House.
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 Nations in Transit annual country reports, with an archive dating back to 2003. Detailed analysis of politics and civil society in each country of the region from the US-based think tank.
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 International Crisis Group.
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 Regular reports on conflict situations in Central Asia and the Caucasus, from an international think tank.
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 Radio Liberty.
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 News and analysis covering the whole region, from US-funded Radio Liberty.
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 Russian Analytical Digest.
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 Excellent bimonthly reports on various features of contemporary Russia politics, from a European think tank.
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 Transitions Online.
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 Articles on the region, from a Prague-based web magazine, with archive dating to 1995.
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