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Seven leading specialists present chapters devoted to key themes in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Those themes include: the personal versus the institutional in the political process; legitimacy and legitimation; and change and collapse of a mono-organisational society. While the book focuses on these major themes, individual chapters deal with wide-ranging and even unusual cases: Graeme Gill analyzes the legitimating functions of Moscow´s architecture, Sheila Fitzpatrick uses the archives to draw a picture of Stalin ´the boss´ dealing with his closest colleagues, Eugene Huskey provides a detailed description of post-Soviet Russian pantouflage, and Archie Brown and Peter Reddaway present their different takes on Gorbachev and the Soviet collapse. Stephen Fortescue provides an overview of policy-making processes from Lenin and Putin, and Leslie Holmes updates the concept of goal-rational legitimacy.

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T.H. Rigby on Soviet and post-Soviet Russian Politics; S.Fortescue Institutionalization and Personalism in the Policy-making Process of the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia; S.Fortescue The Boss and his Team: Stalin and the Inner Circle, 1925-33; S.Fitzpatrick Building the Communist Future: Legitimation and the Soviet City; G.Gill Legitimation and Legitimacy in Russia Revisited; L.Holmes Perestroika as Revolution from Above; A.Brown How Much Did Popular Disaffection Contribute to the Collapse of the USSR? P.Reddaway Pantouflage a la russe. The Recruitment of Russian Political and Business Elites; E.Huskey Conclusion; S.Fortescue

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ARCHIE BROWN Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of St Antony´s College, Oxford., UK SHEILA FITZPATRICK Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor in Modern Russian History at the University of Chicago, USA STEPHEN FORTESCUE Associate Professor in Politics at University of New South Wales, and a Principal Fellow of the Contemporary European Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia GRAEME GILL Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow and Professor of Government and Public Administration at the University of Sydney, and a Principal Fellow of the Contemporary European Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia LESLIE HOLMES Professor of Political Science and Deputy Director of the Contemporary Europe Research Centre (CERC) at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. EUGENE HUSKEY is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of Russian Studies at Stetson University in Florida, USA. PETER REDDAWAY is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs of George Washington University, USA

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