REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia

From the Editor     1

Eric Gordy Introduction     3

Articles

Miloš Đinđić and Dragana Bajić
Challenges of Public Administration Reform in Serbia: Between Requirements and Reality       9

Linka Toneva-Metodieva
Prospects for a Democratic Transformation of Postcommunist Society: The Case of Bulgaria     35

Edvin Zhllima, Drini Imami, Klodjan Rama, and Arjan Shahini
Corruption in Education during Socialism and the Postsocialist Transition: The Case of Albania     51

Nenad Markovikj and Ivan Damjanovski
The EU’s Democracy Promotion Meets Informal Politics: The Case of Leaders’ Meetings in the Republic of Macedonia      71

Adem Beha and Gëzim Selaci
Statebuilding without Exit Strategy in Kosovo: Stability, Clientelism, and Corruption     97

Review Essay
Branislav Radeljić Is There Any Hope for the Balkans?     125

Book Reviews
Rimma Tangalycheva
N. I. Lapin, ed.
Atlas modernizatsii Rossii i ee regionov: Sotsioekonomicheskie i sotsiokul ́turnye tendentsii i problemy     135

Alexander Diener
Edith W. Clowes and Shelly Jarre Bromber, eds.
Area Studies in the Global Age: Community, Place, Identity     141

Notes on the Contributors     145

Georgia: A Borderland beyond Geopolitics

Olga Bogdanova and Andrey Makarychev
Introduction       1

Andrey Makarychev and Alexandra Yatsyk
Imperial Biopolitics and Its Disavowals:
Russia, Georgia, and Spaces In-Between      3

Sophie Zviadadze
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Muslim and Georgian:
Religious Transformation and Questions of Identity among
Adjara’s Muslim Georgians      23

Mikheil Shavtvaladze
The State and Ethnic Minorities: The Case of Georgia      43

Kristina Khutsishvili
Myself and the Other:
Competitive Narratives of Georgians and Abkhazians      69

Articles

Kapitolina Fedorova
Interethnic Communication on the Russian-Chinese Border:
Its Past and Present    83

Elena Shadrina
The Common Gas Market of the Eurasian Economic Union:
Progress and Prospects for Institutionalization     105

Book Reviews

Matthew Pauly
Per Anders Rudling.
The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906–1931     139

John Fahey
Borislav Chernev.
Twilight of Empire: The Brest-Litovsk Conference and the Remaking of East-Central Europe, 1917–1918.     143

Harry C. Merritt
Alexis Peri.
The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad.      145

Larissa G. Titarenko
Zhan Terent ́evich Toshchenko, ed.
Novye idei v sotsiologii.     149

Notes on the Contributors    153

Articles

Colum Leckey

Envisioning Imperial Space: P. I. Rychkov’s Narratives of Orenburg, 1730s–70s

 

Vladimir Tikhonov (Pak Noja)

”Korean Nationalism” Seen through the Comintern Prism, 1920s–30s

 

Kirill V. Istomin, Alexandr A. Popov, and Hye-Jin Kim

Snowmobile Revolution, Market Restoration, and Ecological Sustainability of Reindeer Herding: Changing Patterns of Micro- vs. Macromobility among Komi Reindeer Herders of Bol´shezemel´skaia Tundra

 

Andy Bruno

A Tale of Two Reindeer: Pastoralism and Preservation in the Soviet Arctic

 

Branislav Radeljic

Russia’s Involvement in the Kosovo Case: Defending Serbian Interests or Securing Its Own Influence in Europe?

 

Book Reviews

Michał J. Wilczewski

Robert Blobaum. A Minor Apocalypse: Warsaw during the First World War.

 

László Kürti

Guntis Šmidchens. The Power of Song: Nonviolent National Culture in the Baltic Singing RevolutionEast Germany.

 

Yulia Krylova

Pål Kolstø and Helge Blakkisrud, eds. The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000–2015.

 

Kirstyn Leigh Hevey

Agnia Grigas. Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire.

 

Susan Smith-Peter

William Craft Brumfield. Architecture at the End of the Earth: Photographing the Russian North.

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Special Issue: National Minorities in the Soviet Bloc after 1945: New Historical Research in Micro- and Regional Studies

David Feest and Heidi Hein-Kircher

Introduction

 

David Feest

Dividing Friend from Foe: Local Soviet Policy and the National Question in the Estonian Socialist Soviet Republic, 1944–53

 

Yaman Kouli

The German Minority in Poland between 1945 and 1960:A Key Element of Poland’s Postwar Economy

 

Achim Wörn

Jews in Szczecin, 1945–50: At the Crossroad between Emigration and Assimilation

 

Odeta Rudling

The Cult of the Balts: Mythological Impulses and Neo-Pagan Practices in the Touristic Clubs of the Lithuanian SSR of the 1960s and 1970s

 

Karol Rawski

A Soviet Ethnographic Think Tank: The Involvement of the Institute of Ethnography in Soviet Policy

 

Articles

Baris Isci Pembeci

Religion and the Construction of Ethnic Identity in Kyrgyzstan

 

Book Reviews

Balázs Apor

Michael David-Fox. Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union

 

Nicholas Levy

Heather DeHaan. Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power

 

László Kürti

Alan McDougall. The People’s Game: Football, State, and Society in East Germany

 

Natalie Misteravich-Carroll

Kinga Pozniak. Nowa Huta: Generations of Change in a Model Socialist Town

 

Catherine Portuges

Liliya Berezhnaya and Christian Schmitt, eds. Iconic Turns: Nation and Religion in Eastern European Cinema since 1989

 

 

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