Posted by Sean on September 24, 2006
Just when you though anarchist studies was a dead subject, Mark Leier, the director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada has published a new biography of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. You can read Walter Moss’ review of the book in the Moscow Times. It sounds like a good read, though sadly Leier doesn’t take advantage of the voluminous amount of Russian sources.
I’ve always found Bakunin an attractive figure. Alexander Herzen paints a wonderful picture of him in his memoirs My Past and Thoughts. Bakunin’s debates with Marx are a classic moment in revolutionary intellectual history, though when you think of about it, it is wholly unimportant in the big scheme of things. Unfortunately, not everyone is so convinced of its irrelevance to current politics.
About ten years ago I went to an anarchist convention in San Francisco at Golden ..read more
Posted by Sean on September 23, 2006
According to current estimates there are 20 to 30 million Russians speaking peoples living outside of Russia. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union an estimated 30 million lived in CIS and Baltic nations. Currently the largest Russian community lives in Ukraine, with 8.3 million identifying themselves as Russian, while another 14.3 call Russian their mother tongue. Kazakhstan (4.1 million), Belarus (1.2 million) and Uzbekistan (1 million) are also CIS nations with large Russian populations.
The CIS is not the only place in the world Russians reside. There is an estimated 5 to 9 million living in countries outside the CIS. This number includes the some 12 million that left between 1917 and 1991 and their descendants. The largest communities exist in Germany (about 3 million), the United States (2.9 million) and Israel (1.2 million). Since 1991, 1.2 million Russians ..read more
Posted by Sean on September 20, 2006
Lots of important Russia news has come and gone since I was forced to turn my attention to preparing for my trip. Immediate concerns prevented me from commenting on the fall out from the race riot in Kondopoga, the assassination of Central Bank deputy chairman Andrei Kozlov, the continuing debate about the meaning and implications of “sovereign democracy,” the Russian government throwing roadblocks on the Sakhalin-Shell Oil deal, the proposal for an “all-Caucasian” amnesty, among many other things. Who knows if I will be able to provide some thoughts on these events since the news waits for no one.
Instead, I want to turn readers’ attention to some broader issues.
As I was shopping for some reading for my London-Moscow flight, I happened upon the most recent issue of the Economist. The cover immediately struck me. It read: “Surprise! The Power of the ..read more
Posted by Sean on September 12, 2006
I haven’t written anything for the last several days because I’ve been preparing for my London-Moscow-Washington DC trip. I leave for London tomorrow to attend the conference “The Relaunch of the Soviet Project, 1954-64” at organized by the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London. Next I go on to Moscow for a month to work in the libraries and archives. Then I move on to Yaroslavl more of the same. Finally, in mid-November I move on to Washington DC to attend the 38th National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.
Blog posts will certainly continue while I’m abroad. I’m hoping that writing in country will add some perspective on the subjects I address. If anyone is in Moscow or Yaroslavl September 19 to November 15, drop me an email. ..read more
Posted by Sean on September 2, 2006
Another domino falls. Another symbol, if not the representative of Russian independent media, has been scooped up by a Kremlin ally. The business daily, Kommsersant was sold this week for $300 million to Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov is the owner of Owner of Oskol Steel Mill, the Ural Steel industrial complex, the Lebedinsky Iron Ore Mining and Processing Facility, and Mikhailovsky GOK (he and his partner Vasiliy Anisimov acquired the latter in the beginner of 2005. Ranked the 25th richest man in Russia and the 278th in the world by Forbes with a net worth of $2.6 billion, the 52 year old oligarch of metals and mining is now moving some of his investment into media. “This is my personal deal, my personal investments,” Usmanov told Kommersant. “The media business has always interested me and I decided to try to do it.” He then stated ..read more
