Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 2004/05

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis deals with how population dynamics in a post-socialist Russian village intertwine with the use of local resources. Specifically, it explores two interrelated issues: first, it looks at how attitudes to local resources vary, depending on people’s ways of engaging with place; second, it focuses on the contexts in which people reify and manipulate their identification with place by ascribing place-related identities to themselves and others as they deal with local resources. The research is based on fieldwork carried out in the village of Kuzomen’ on the White Sea Coast, in north-west Russia. Traditionally, research in Russia has focused on regions in which farming or herding is the main source of livelihood. This thesis explores the peculiarity of post-Soviet conditions in a part of Russia where fishing is the prevailing economic activity. The following questions were addressed: 1) what factors affect people’s relations with and attitudes towards resources in Kuzomen’? 2) how does the postsocialist condition affect resource use in the area? 3) what is the connection between people’s identification with place and their attitudes to its resources? The main findings are that the specificity of postsocialist conditions in Russia and population migration in Kuzomen’ have contributed to the differentiation of people’s attitudes to local resources. In particular, there is a difference between local people and incomers on the one hand, and between permanent dwellers and summer visitors on the other. The deterioration of established systems of state management and control, and the inefficient implementation of newly emerged legislation regarding resource use in post-Soviet Russia, have led to a situation in which access to resources is often regulated through informal arrangements. In these arrangements, identification with place becomes important as people use place-related identities such as local or incomer in their negotiations over access and rights to local resources.

In 1991, the Baltic states re-gained independence from the Soviet Union after roughly 50 years of Soviet domination.  The primary benefit of this change was renewed sovereignty.  The primary challenge was how to retain that sovereignty. This thesis offers a comparative analysis of the Baltic-Russian security relationship focusing on three aspects: the extent of the Russian threat, the extent of security from the West, and whether small state theory can account for the actions of the Baltic states vis-à-vis both Russia and the West.  The thesis compares security issues in the Baltic-Russian relationship with the similar issues in other former-Soviet states.  It also compares security provided by the West with security from the Nordic states.  Finally, the thesis tests the main expectations of small state theory through Baltic-Russian and Baltic-West relations.  The conclusion argues that though Russia did (and does) pose a threat to Baltic sovereignty, it is significantly less than the threat to other former Soviet states.  Furthermore, the security provided by the West is less than expected when compared to security from the Nordic states.  Finally, while small state theory is capable of accounting for most Baltic actions vis-à-vis Russia and the West, there are some shortcomings in the theory as regards this case study.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Borer, Douglas ; Tsypkin, Mikhail. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 29, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: NATO enlargement, Georgia, Russia, New Great Game, ethnic separatism, deterrence, realism, idealism. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Europe and Eurasia))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Tsypkin, Mikhail ; Keyser, Boris. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Russian Language, Language Policy, Russification, Russia, Russian Federation, Soviet Union, Former Soviet Union, Identity, Nationalist, Nationalism, russkie, rossiianne, Baltic States, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Romanov Dynasty, Bolsheviks, Communist Party, Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin. Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-33). Also available in print.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 22, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 334-344).

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): David S. Yost, Mikhail Tsypkin. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Many considered the end of Soviet Communism as a sign that politics, and Left politics in particular, had been transcended in Russia and the world. Yet recent events, and this author’s own experience, contradict this vision. This paper will show that there is a radical, emancipatory, progressive Left emerging in Russia. However, this emerging politics remains unimaginable within the conventional ontology of Russian politics. This hegemonic ontology envisions an antagonism between “two Russias”: the conservative, lethargic, Eastern, rural masses and the energetic, progressive, Western, urban minority, which divides the political field among the existing actors. This paper will reject this vision and redraw the political landscape such that the contours of Russia’s emerging new Left can come to light. In this task, the author draws on the theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Their post-Marxism emphasizes the discursive nature of socio-political dynamics and rejects the positivism of canonical Marxism. This paper affirms their basic premise, but advances a “discursive materialist” reading that explicitly rejects idealism and post-political fantasies. Through this theoretical lens it is possible not only to account for the emergence of the new Russian Left as such, but to show how its emergence works to effect a general reconfiguration of the political field. An excursion to the Turkish Gezi Park protests of 2013 vividly demonstrates the potential of Russia’s emerging Left, namely, its capacity to articulate a progressive, emancipatory populism. / Graduate

This thesis is concerned with the geographical impact of the post-Soviet transition on the north of Perm' oblast, Russian Federation; a forested area which is marginal in terms of agriculture and economic development, where harsh climate and marshy soils preclude profitable agriculture, and where very poor infrastructure and low levels of investment have contributed to the decline of the forestry industry, which was developed during the Soviet period outside of the market system under which such development might have been regarded as non-viable. This thesis discusses marginality and poverty against the background of the process of 'transition' in Russia, and also outlines the theory of transition itself. The historical context is also considered; the processes through which the north of Perm' oblast arrived at the position in which it found itself by 1991 are examined, and changes up to the present day are analyzed. Historically, the processes of settlement and development of forestry in the study area are central. The political situation in the Russian Federation is also brought into the argument; the struggle for power between the centre and the periphery, and the weakening of the centre in recent months all have a bearing upon the view taken of marginal areas by the Moscow administration, and the policies undertaken which affect them. The thesis describes the responses of rural inhabitants to the processes of marginalisation; through out-migration, bifurcation of households, and the ways in which they utilise their domestic and environmental resources to effect subsistence. It also describes the importance of cash sources, of social capital, and of the forestry enterprises in the villages, as survival strategies. The conditions in the study region are shown to owe much to the context of Soviet development policy, and its impact on post-Soviet Russia.