The Soviet Famine of 1931–1934: Genocide,a Result of Poor Harvests,or the Outcome of a Conflict Between the State and the Peasants?

Abstract

Interpretation of the Soviet famine of 1931–1934 (mainly in 1933) has long given rise to controversy. Publication of a Russian monograph by the leading spokesman for Russia in the international debates on the famine provides an opportunity both to analyse this Russian interpretation and to sum up the present state of knowledge about the famine and its causes.     

Suicide in the Ukraine

The suicide rates of the 24 provinces (oblasts) of the Ukraine were found to be strongly associated with indices of social disintegration (such as divorce and illegitimacy rates), with the Western provinces incorporated in the USSR later than other Ukrainian territories having lower suicide rates and lower levels of social disintegration.     

Migration from Central Asia to Russia in the New Model of World Order

Migration becomes not only a means of survival but also and above all an impulse for the dispersal and "gathering together" of people, capital, information, and skills in new social configurations.     

Not Thanks to But Despite

Although the Russian economy declined in 2015, the decline was not as serious as expected by Russian leaders. None of the disasters anticipated at the end of 2014 happened. The decline was moderated by continued demand from the main consumers of Russian raw materials, continued government financial support for the defense industry, and balancing changes in internal prices. The ruble has remained stable because it is largely dependent on the price of oil on world markets. The impact of Western sanctions on the Russian economy steadily declined throughout 2015. Although Russia avoided economic collapse, the prospect for the near future is continued stagnation, rather than renewed growth.     

Russian “Ad-Hoc” Journalism

Any civic project naturally seeks an effective means of spreading the word about its activities. Sometimes, such projects are able to create a system, in which a large nmber of people take part in collecting primary information, processing, enriching, verifying and interpreting it, and in distributing the finished product. The latter is particularly important and useful given external pressure from the state and its coercive apparatus. This ‘exit’ point for information is always the most vulnerable in any voluntary community that is forced to withstand aggressive pressure from the state’s oversight and law-enforcement structures. It is technically possible to create a distributed, decentralized working environment (a dispersed ‘office’ or ‘newsroom’), in which workers are not physically proximate to one another. It is also possible to store information, materials, work-in-progress and finished products on remote or distributed servers. Indeed, any organization can be spatially ‘dispersed’. All of these methods are well-known and widely used by those who have reason to fear external intrusion into their work processes. But the finished informational product is still a concrete website with a unique address, and that is what is most vulnerable: it can be easily blocked, most simply by the internet providers themselves. However, it turns out that ‘populous’ civic projects are best positioned to overcome this threat. Each participant in the community de facto becomes an element in a distributed system, through which the community can publish the results of its work. It thus becomes possible to organize not only a decentralized ‘entry point’ for information, but a decentralized ‘exit point’ as well.     

International Law in the Courts of the Russian Federation: Practice of Application

This paper analyses the practice of the Courts of the RussianFederation in applying the rules of International Law in theperiod following acceptance of the Constitution of the RussianFederation (1993). The present constitution and the new federallegislation regulate the relevance of International and RussianLaw much differently than they did before. Accordingly, judiciarypractice is developing in a new way. Despite the massive bodyof laws and regulations, there are no precise reference pointsand answers in the legislation to practically important questionsof correct application of the international treaties and generallyrecognized rules. This is one of the reasons why judiciary practiceis developing inconsistently, and the application of InternationalLaw is often incorrect or even wrong. Not all of the internationalnorms are applicable, and not all of the treaties have priorityover laws. There are certain legal conditions for the applicationof international treaties, conditions for when they prevailover laws, and also there is a procedure of application whichshould be observed by Courts trying particular cases. Althoughone can speak of many contradictions, it is wise to take noteof the tendency in judiciary practice to co-ordinated applicationof international and Russian law.     

The "Question of the Ethnic Russians" in the Context of Ethnic Relations in the Russian Federation

The author examines the current and likely future position of the Russian ethnic group within Russia's systems of interethnic and ethnofederal relations. He also examines the meaning of the term nationalism as used in Russian politics and warns about the danger of growing imbalances in state regulation of federal and ethnic relations. He proposes a new federalism that would eliminate asymmetries in relations between ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups inhabiting the Russian Federation.     

North Korea's juche ideology: indigenous communism or traditional thought?

ABSTRACT

This article examines the content of North Korea's juche ideology by analyzing official texts in comparison with Confucian classics and new religious movements in South Korea. The comparison revealed a series of similarities that vividly demonstrate that juche ideas have absorbed core elements of Korean and East Asian philosophical traditions.