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October 2005
September 11, Bush and Putin
Bob Woodward’s book, Bush at War, is a fascinating study of how President George W. Bush and his national security advisors made the decisions that led the nation into war against Afghanistan, following the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
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April 2005
Learning from Reagan & Gorbachev’s Relationship
Ambassador Jack F. Matlock’s new book, "Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended" (Random House, New York, 2004), is a fascinating study of presidential leadership and international diplomacy.
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March 2005
Insights from the Khrushchev Era (Part III)
For me, the most interesting parts of William Taubman’s biography of Khrushchev ("Khrushchev: The Man and His Era," W. W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, 2003) are the chapters describing Khrushchev’s struggle to become the sole leader of the Communist Party and head of the international Communist movement.
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February 2005
Insights from the Khrushchev Era (Part II)
William Taubman’s award-winning biography of Khrushchev offers insights into life under Communist Party rule. Although the focus of the book is primarily on political leadership struggles with Party circles, one can easily read “between the lines” (as Russians learned to do) and gain an understanding of the difficulties that faced the average Russian who had to struggle to survive.
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January 2005
Insights from the Khrushchev Era (Part I)
William Taubman’s awarding-winning biography of Khrushchev (Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, 2003) is fascinating reading; his crisp writing style and creative organization make the 650 pages of text go by quickly.
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August 2004
Russia’s Search for Identity
In the decade since the collapse of Communism, a proud but troubled Russian nation has struggled to find a post-Soviet identity. While some have prospered, most Russians have seen conditions worsen for them and their families.
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May 2004
Soft Power, the USSR and the Cold War
In 1990, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a Professor at Harvard University, published a book entitled Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. In this book, Nye took sharp issue with scholars who were writing about the decline of American power.
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April 2004
Religion as Social Capital in America and in Russia
Over the past twenty years, the concept of social capital has attracted a great deal of attention among scholars in the West and considerable research and debate has resulted. One significant part of this discussion relates to social capital that is tied to religious life.
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March 2004
Russia’s Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov
Russia is a complex and fascinating country and, after thirteen years of experience working in Russia, I still have much to learn about its culture and its peoples.
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February 2004
Russia’s "Experiment" with Democracy
obert Service, Professor of Russian History at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, has a distinguished record as an analyst of modern Russia. His new book, "Russia: Experiment with a People" (Harvard University Press, 2003), will further enhance this reputation.
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January 2004
The Second Russian Revolution: A British Perspective
Rodric Braithwaite, the British Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia from 1988 through 1992, has written a fascinating book on his experiences. The book is entitled "Across the Moscow River: The World Turned Upside Down," a title that is derived in part from the fact that the British Embassy is strategically located across the Moscow River from the Kremlin.
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October 2003
Nation-Building: A Comparison Part V
Many Americans who witnessed George Washington's trip from Mount Vernon to New York to assume his new role as the country's first president were amazed by the respect he generated. But the newly elected President had no illusions. He wrote to a friend that he faced "an ocean of difficulties."
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September 2003
Nation-Building: A Comparison Part IV
In the early days of the American Republic, while leaders in various states were drafting state constitutions that balanced liberty and authority, the Continental Congress was struggling with another aspect of the freedom-versus-order problem - the balance between a central government and the rights of the states.
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August 2003
Nation-Building: A Comparison Part III
In his First Inaugural Address, President George Washington spoke of the "Republican model of government" in its American form as an "experiment." For the President and other Founding Fathers, there was some doubt that the United States would work as a democratic republic.
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May 2003
Nation-Building: A Comparison Part II
The March 2000 election of President Vladimir Putin marked a critical point in the development of Russia's post-Soviet political system.
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April 2003
Nation-Building: A Comparison Part I
During the past year, I have deliberately chosen to intersperse my reading of books on the founding of the American republic and the founding of the "New Russia."
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March 2003
Diagnosing the Collapse of Communism
The debate over the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the related demise of Communism as a rival ideology to democracy, has been going on for more than ten years. Many distinguished journalists who were stationed in the former Soviet Union have written books in which they have shared their insights on this subject.
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January 2003
Higher Education and Civil Society Building in Russia
The task of rebuilding the social, economic and political institutions of a nation that was previously ruled by Marxist-Leninist elites is a daunting one. For those of us in the West, it is easy to become impatient with the pace of progress, the lack of significant breakthroughs, and the limited enthusiasm for a more democratic society.
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November 2002
Colin Powell: "When You Have Lost Your Best Enemy"
At a recent meeting of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, I heard Secretary of State Colin Powell share his perspective on the "expanding U.S.-Russia partnership."
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July 2002
Russia's Binary Character
In the introduction to his new survey of Russian history, Professor Geoffrey Hosking described the geopolitics and the ecology of the Eurasian landmass and highlighted features of the national character of the Russian people, features that have developed over their one-thousand year history.
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June 2002
Russia: What Path to Follow?
How does a nation rebuild after seventy years of Communism? Are there examples of other nations that endured traumatic periods of authoritarian rule and emerged able to form democratic governments? These are the questions and challenges that policymakers have faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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April 2002
Supporting the Reform of Russian Education
Anticipating the new administrations in both Russia and the United States, the staff of the Russian and Eurasian Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace issued a report entitled “An Agenda for Renewal: U.S.–Russian Relations.”
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March 2002
Learning Democratic Values and Behavior
The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has led to a spirited debate among analysts about post-Communist transitions. This discourse hinges on one critical challenge: how to form the basic building blocks of civil society where none previously existed – or existed only in truncated form.
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March 2002
Russian Artists Comment on America's 911
On December 2, 2001, The New York Times ran a fascinating article highlighting four prominent representatives of Russian theater. The article, written by Lawrence Sacharow, included excerpts from an animated conversation among these four artists on the state of Russian theater today.
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February 2002
Doing Good in the Midst of Revolution
I recently heard an amazing story that came out of Russia. The story was told to me by Dr. Myron Augsburger, the distinguished author and lecturer who previously served as President of Eastern Mennonite College (Harrisonburg, Virginia).
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February 2002
What Does It Mean to be Russian?
One of the most difficult issues facing the Russian people today concerns their identity as a people and as a nation. For outside observers, this issue is often not clearly understood, and Russian attitudes on the issue of identity can be confusing and sometimes alarming.
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January 2002
Russia and the United States: A New Partnership?
The traumatic events of September 11 have had a profound impact on the world of international politics, an impact very few people could have imagined. It appears possible that the terrorist attacks may have resulted in a fundamental shift in relationships between the United States and the Russian Federation.
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September 2001
Chronicles from Russia: RACU Business Forum
Students, faculty and Board members at the Russian-American Christian University (RACU) in Moscow had the privilege of hosting Donald E. Mitchell, former Executive Director of Quality for General Motors, as a guest speaker at the first RACU Business Forum of the new academic year.
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January 2001
A New Leader And A New Attitude
In January 1999, public opinion surveys in Russia reported that 82% of the population thought that things in Russia were "headed in the wrong direction," while only 6% believed the country was headed in the "right" one. As of this past June, however, three out of every ten Russians now say that not only is the country moving in the right direction, "the worst times are over."
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December 2000
Creating the Marxist "Messiah"
Edvard Radzinsky's biography of Joseph Stalin, the first biography based on the secret files of the President's Archive, the Communist Party Archive, and the Archive of the October Revolution, is a gripping tale.
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October 2000
Reforming Russia's Economy: First Things First
It is hard to overestimate the immensity of the challenge that Russian leaders face in terms of economic reform.
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August 2000
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Russia's Gift to the World
One of the memories that tourists to St. Petersburg or Moscow typically cherish is of young Russian musicians playing classical music or Russian folk music in underground passageways or entrances to Metro stations. It is a bittersweet memory.
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April 2000
Russians in the Wilderness, Part VI: Leo Tolstoy's "Two Old Men"
eginning with his first story, written from the battlefield during the Crimean War, Leo Tolstoy became one of Russia's greatest literary figures. The success of his two major novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, distinguished him as an international figure; his readership extended throughout Russia to Western Europe and the United States.
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February 2000
Russians in the Wilderness, Part V: Laying a New Legal Foundation
Russia is struggling. Its people are battling through a series of crises unparalleled in modern history. Russian commentators have frequently compared their country's experience to that of the Israelite's escape from Egyptian slavery and the subsequent forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the "Promised Land."
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January 2000
Russians in the Wilderness, Part IV: Creating New Gods
Russia is struggling. Its people are battling through a series of crises unparalleled in modern history. Russian commentators have frequently compared their country's experience to that of the Israelites in their escape from Egyptian slavery, and the subsequent forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the "Promised Land."
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December 1999
Russians in the Wilderness, Part III: Remembering the Past
Russia is struggling. Its people are battling through a series of crises unparalleled in modern history. Russian commentators have frequently compared their country's experience to that of the Israelites' escape from Egyptian slavery and the subsequent forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the "Promised Land."
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November 1999
Russians in the Wilderness, Part II: Rejecting Their Leaders
Russia is struggling. Its people are battling through a series of crises unparalleled in modern history. Russian commentators have frequently compared their country's experience to that of the Israelites' escape from Egyptian slavery and the subsequent forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the "Promised Land."
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October 1999
Russians in the Wilderness, Part I: The "Good Old Days"
Russia is struggling. Its people are battling through a series of crises unparalleled in modern history. Russian commentators have frequently compared their country's experience to that of the Israelites' escape from Egyptian slavery and the subsequent forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they reached the "Promised Land."
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July 1999
Russia's Soviet Legacy and Future Hope
In his fascinating new book, "Russia Under Western Eyes," Professor Martin Malia traces how Western opinion has viewed Russia at various stages in its development from the time of Peter the Great to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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June 1999
Kosovo Through Russian Eyes
To the vast majority of Russians -- at least to those who are paying attention -- the war in Kosovo is not aimed primarily at the Serbs, but at them.
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April 1999
Generation Nyet: "There Is No Truth"
Since the collapse of Marxism-Leninism, which was the source of the Russian state's political authority and legitimacy for seventy years, the Russian people have been seeking an alternative to fill the empty void. The intellectual battle at Russian universities has been fascinating to watch.
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February 1999
Searching for Russia's Soul
Following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Russian writers began to strike out in new and bold directions, slowly but surely testing the limits and constraints of official government censors.
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January 1999
Health Care and Russia's New Private Sector
In a stunning report entitled "Dead Souls," in the January 1999 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Murray Feshbach describes the current health crisis in Russia -- a crisis much more serious than most Russians or foreigners understand.
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November 1998
Russia's "Generation Nyet"
During May of 1998, a major nationwide survey was taken of young Russians between the ages of 18 and 29. These young people, born between 1968 and 1980, had their lives and values shaped by the "era of stagnation" under Leonid Brezhnev, perestroika under Mikhail Gorbachev, and all the radical changes that have occurred since the collapse of Communism in the early 1990s.
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September 1998
Courage in Suffering: Russia's Great Patriotic War
One of the must-see sites for visitors to Moscow is Victory Park (Park Podedy), the massive memorial complex built to commemorate the Soviet victory in World War Two. This impressive site is located on Poklonnaya gora (Hill of Greetings), where generations of travelers would climb, weary from their journeys, to see the city of Moscow spread out before them, with its impenetrable fortress walls and the golden, onion-shaped domes of its many churches.
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August 1998
Taking Responsibility for Russia's Past
On Friday, July 17, 1998, exactly 80 years to the day since the Romanov family and its retinue were shot to death by Communist Party functionaries, Czar Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra, and three of their five children were buried in the crypt of the 18th century Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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June 1998
Dealing Honestly with Russia's History
In the preface of his book "Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia," David Remnick noted that interest in Russia has eased since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the waning of the nuclear threat.
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April 1998
Russia and the Debate Over the "Vision Thing"
During his presidential campaign in June 1996, President Boris Yeltsin initiated a public debate in which he challenged Russian citizens to come up with a new "national idea" to serve as an ideological guide for his reformist administration.
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February 1998
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Repentance and Moral Renewal
As early as 1965, the Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn predicted that "Time has finally run out for Communism." He said the same thing when, nine years later, he was forcibly exiled from his homeland.
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January 1998
Fedor Dostoevsky: On Being Human
Crime and Punishment is one of the world's greatest literary works. Written in 1864 by the Russian writer Fedor Dostoevsky, it has become a classic read and re-read many times around the world. Oxford Professor John Jones describes Crime and Punishment as "the most accessible and most exciting novel in the world."
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September 1997
Father Alexander Men and Religious Freedom in Russia
One of the recurring struggles in post-Communist Russia is the heated debate over the rights of religious minorities and the appropriate relationship between church and state.
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August 1997
The Insights of Father Alexander Men
When Father Men was brutally murdered in September 1990, he left behind a rich legacy of pastoral counsel and Biblical preaching, and a cadre of young Orthodox priests and intellectuals who committed themselves to carrying on his ministry.
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July 1997
The Legacy of Father Alexander Men
On Sunday, September 9, 1990, Father Alexander Men left his wooden house in Semkhoz early in the morning and headed for the train station. He had a long day ahead at his church in Novaya Derevnya, where he was scheduled to conduct the liturgy, hear confessions, baptize infants and preside over some funerals. Then he was due in Moscow for another of his now famous public lectures. Father Men never reached the train station.
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February 1997
Russia and America: Getting Acquainted
In the early decades following the War of Independence with Great Britain, Americans felt drawn to Russia for numerous reasons. Although Russia was expanding East and the United States was expanding to the West, the two countries established a friendship not across the Pacific Ocean, but rather across "Old Europe."
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January 1997
Early Russian-American Relations
In December 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ceased to exist and the tensions of the Cold War gave way to a new era of Russian-American cooperation. Soon after, an observation made by Alexis de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America, written in 1835, was discovered.
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October 1996
The Search for "the Russian Idea"
In a meeting with campaign supporters in July, President Boris Yeltsin issued a remarkable challenge. After stating that the various stages in Russian history -- monarchy, totalitarianism, and perestroika -- each had their own ideology, Yeltsin noted that the current democratic path of his government did not have one.
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August 1996
Russia’s Generation X: Where Are They Headed?
In the July issue of this newsletter, we noted that Russia’s "Generation X" is deeply disillusioned about their country’s future and profoundly skeptical of political revolution and economic experimentation. They are a twentysomething generation that knows what it doesn’t want -- the old days of the Communist Party’s repression -- but is unsure with what to replace it.
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July 1996
Russia’s Generation X: Who Are They?
Russia’s twentysomething generation has much in common with America’s: it is a generation searching for an identity, a name, a purpose, and a future. In America, young people born after 1960 have been variously labeled "Generation X," "13th Gen," and other less flattering titles, in an attempt to find some way of characterizing the post-Baby Boomers. The same effort to understand young Russians in their 20's is also underway, and this research has much to say about the future direction of post-Communist Russia after the turn of the century.
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June 1996
Democracy, Free Markets and Habits of the Heart
The collapse of the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European empire has generated much debate among analysts about the process of rebuilding society and facilitating the development of democracy in the post-Communist world.
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May 1996
Nostalgia in Post-Communist Russia
Political commentators have noted that the results of the December 1995 parliamentary elections in Russia reflected increasing support for the reorganized Communist Party, particularly from the elderly and members of the military. This "protest vote" expressed popular dissatisfaction with four years of reform -- reform which has left most ordinary Russians materially worse off than in the past.
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March 1996
A Russian Literary Treasure: The Brothers Karamazov
One of the great classics of world literature is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "The Brothers Karamazov" (New York: Bantam Books, 1970), a novel written only one year before his death in 1881. This compelling and complex story revolves around a patricide and four sons that remain, each one with a motive for murdering their father.
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February 1996
Ivan Prokhanov and His Dream
One of the great leaders of the Protestant movement in Russia is Ivan S. Prokhanov, who lived through sixty years of tumultuous history which included the end of the Romanov dynasty, the agony of the First World War, the revolutions of 1917 and the formation of the Soviet Union by the Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin and Stalin.
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January 1996
Russian Education: Filling the Vacuum
One of the least talked about aspects of the transition from Communism to a free society in Russia and Eastern Europe is the world of education, yet education is one of the keys to the success of the democratic reform movement.
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November 1995
Parliamentary Elections, Disillusioned Youth and Russia’s Future
As Russia approaches its December 17th elections to fill the 450-seat State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, important insights can be gained about the enormous difficulties which face a nation trying to rebuild after an extended period of Communist Party rule.
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April 1995
The Legacy of Vladimir Lenin
During the dramatic years of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms of the Soviet Union, the name of Vladimir Lenin continued to be revered as it had from the day he died in 1923.
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March 1995
The Cultural Legacy of Marxism-Leninism
Philip Walters, an astute scholar of religion in Russia, made the following insightful observation about how Russians are dealing with the new "marketplace of faiths" which has developed in their country.
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February 1995
The Search for Meaning in Post-Communist Russia
There is a deep mood of dissatisfaction in Russia, a mood which has led to a questioning of the most fundamental traditions and beliefs of Russian society. Desperately serious problems, smothered for decades by totalitarian deception, are now out in the open.
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January 1995
Educational Reform in a Time of Transition
A new book edited by Anthony Jones entitled "Education and Society in the New Russia" begins with the following thesis: "After decades of subordination to the goals of the communist regime, educators in Russia now find themselves part of a fundamental social, economic and political transformation. ..."
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October 1994
Russian Education: A Status Report
Soviet education had shortcomings, but what has followed the collapse of the union in 1991 appears to be worse," according to an article titled "Russia: Unlearned," which appeared in The Economist (July 30, 1994). "One reason for declining standards is chaos in the school curriculum....Another reason is the absence of money. Last year the government spent 7 trillion roubles ($7.5 billion), which does not go far in a country with 21 million children in secondary education."
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August 1994
A Modern Russian Literary Masterpiece: The Beloved "M&M"
One of the most popular books among Russians today is Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, first published in late 1966 and early 1967 – 26 years after the author’s death. As I travel to Russia and visit many university campuses, I often ask Russian students: "What is your favorite book?" I am astonished at how many times I hear, "Why, of course, The Master and Margarita!"
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June 2004
What Can the West Do to Help Russia?
As the hopeful days of the "New World Order" give way to the despair of the emerging "New World Disorder," a national debate is waging in the United States about the appropriate role which American foreign aid can play in encouraging the building of democratic political institutions and free market economic structures.
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May 1994
A Russian Literary Treasure: The Legend of the Three Hermits
An old legend from the Volga District tells of a Bishop who was traveling from Archangel to the Solovetsk Monastery. While on board the ship, he overheard a sailor telling other passengers about three hermits who lived on a remote island along the route of the ship.
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March 1994
Is Reform in Russia Dead?
One of Russia’s radical reformers during the Gorbachev years was Yuri Afanasyev, an historian and outspoken crusader for exposing the truth about the Stalinist era. In 1988 he was elected to the executive council of the Memorial Society, which had grown from a grassroots movement to build a monument honoring the victims of Stalin’s terror into a nationwide organization advocating radical de-Stalinization of the Soviet system.
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February 1994
Restoring Morality
The restoration of morality in Russia has been a major theme of the reformers since Perestroika began. Although this theme is often ignored in the Western press, it lies at the heart of the "revolution of the spirit" which we have witnessed in Russia and Eastern Europe in recent years.
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2002
Potholes and Gas Wars
When an American first arrives in Moscow, the road system in the capital makes a positive impression. The highway from the international airport (Sheremetyevo) to the central part of the city near the Kremlin is a broad, tree-lined boulevard. While it is not equivalent to the airport-bound interstate highways in Los Angeles or Chicago, it is still an impressive transportation artery.
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October 1003
Food Lines and Family Budgets
Nizhni Novgorod (formerly Gorky) could be called Russia’s "Pittsburgh." Located 230 miles east of Moscow, this center of industry and commerce is the third largest city in the republic. At the junction of the Volga and Oka rivers, the impressive Kremlin of Nizhni Novgorod offers an imposing view from its high embankment. These rivers serve as transportation lifelines for food, raw materials, and industrial products.
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Winter 1992
A Russian University Struggles to Survive
Nizhni Novgorod is a very liveable university city. Located 380 kilometers (230 miles) east of Moscow on the junction of the Volga and Oka Rivers, this city of two million people hosts 13 post-secondary educational institutions. Formerly named Gorky, the city was declared "closed" in 1932 and foreigners were denied access to the area, which houses a large defense-related industrial complex which produces MiG aircraft, nuclear submarines and other defense systems. The city also has a large automotive factory that was built in the 1930s with the help of Henry Ford and his advisors. In the fall of 1991, the city was "opened" to the West.
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1990
The Invitation
On Saturday, October 20, 1990, a delegation of thirteen Christian educators boarded a plane in New York’s Kennedy Airport for a trip to Russia. As coordinator of the trip -- and in Soviet eyes, the delegation head -- I was very nervous.
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