Thesis (Ph.D.)--Princeton University, 1984. / Reproduction. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through the University of California Press eScholarship Editions.

This dissertation will analyse the grand strategy of the Russian empire against its southern rivals, namely the Ottoman empire and Iran, in the Caucasus, between 1821 and 1833. This research is interested in explaining how the Russian imperial machine devised and executed successful strategies to use its relative superiority over the Ottomans and the Qājārs and secure domination of the region. Russian success needs, however, to be understood within a broader context that also takes in Ottoman and Iranian policy-making and perspectives, and is informed by a comparative sense of the strengths and weaknesses of all three imperial regimes. In this thesis, the question of why Russia was more successful than the Ottoman state and Iran in the Caucasus between 1821 and 1833 is explained in three main ways: the first and most important factor in this process was the well-functioning fiscal-military machine of the Russian empire; the second factor was the diplomatic and military skill of the Russian leadership which helped to avert any effective political and military alliance between the Ottoman empire and Iran and defeated its rivals in two separate and successive wars; the last main factor in Russian success was its geopolitically superior position.

This is a study of the life and activities of August Torma, an Estonian diplomat. He was born in 1895, well before his country broke free from Tsarist Russia, and died in 1971, in London, when Estonia was back in the Russian, by then Soviet, fold. Although a biography, it has the capacity to provide fresh insights into Estonian history.The study begins with Torma s early years and his activities during the First World War, observes his subsequent progression through the ranks at the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn and thereafter follows him to Rome, Bern and Geneva where he was appointed ambassador. The focus of the study falls on his years in London where he was posted in 1934. With the help of archival material the study sheds new light on a difficult period in Estonian history, particularly on the years leading up to the 1940 loss of independence, the Second World War and its aftermath. Torma s final three decades in England were a struggle for survival as financial problems persisted and his diplomatic position was gradually eroded.The study concludes that although Torma did not live to see Estonia regain its independence in 1991 he kept the idea of Estonian sovereignty very much alive during the Cold War and maintained the concept of legal continuity which was to form the cornerstone of the country s resurrection.

This thesis explores how and why two capitalistic American corporations were granted access to the Soviet Union's internal market. For decades communist leadership railed against what they termed "cheap bourgeois consumption," yet in 1972 Pepsi-Cola became the first officially sanctioned American consumer product in the USSR. Eighteen years later, McDonald's would become the first American restaurant to open in the Soviet Union. Both companies became deeply involved in Cold War politics and diplomacy, with high-ranking officials from both sides taking part in the negotiations to bring these companies into the country. These two case studies shed light on a seldom-covered aspect of American-Soviet economic relations and cultural exchange.

This thesis deals with the Soviet Union’s Peace Campaign during the first decade of the Cold War as it sought to establish the Iron Curtain. The thesis focuses on the primary institutions engaged in the Peace Campaign: the World Peace Council and the Soviet Peace Committee. Chapter 1 outlines the domestic and international context which fostered the peace movement (provisional title) and endeavours to construct a narrative of the political and social situation which the Soviet Union found itself in after World War II (as a superpower and an empire leading the Socialist Bloc) in order to put forward the argument that the motivations for undertaking the project of the 'peace movement', above all, were of an international-political nature, rather than of an internal and domestic nature. Chapter 2 starts off with the Soviet project of establishing an international peace movement, including firstly the World Peace Congress, which simultaneously convened in Paris and Prague, and then proceeds with the institutional, political and social development of the Campaign up to the dissolution of the Cominform in 1956. The task of this chapter is not merely to chronicle the history of the Soviet Peace Campaign, but to extract from the narrative underlying themes and organise them accordingly. Finally, Chapter 3 deals with internal Soviet Peace Campaign. The task here is to construct a historical account of the Soviet anti-war movement from 1949 to 1956 through the institutional history of the Soviet Peace Committee. Furthermore, the aim is to demonstrate the relationship between the Soviet Peace Committee and party and state institutions and its dependency on and implications for political decision-making processes within the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Finally, this chapter will also examine the role of the Soviet Peace Committee and its affiliated institutions in the advancement of Cold War propaganda through the media (i.e. press, journalism, etc.), literature (i.e. novels, poems, etc.), film and political art (i.e. posters, caricature, etc.).

M.A. (Sociology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the results of the revolution and its effects on the Russian people. Since the government of the NEP period allowed relative freedom to writers, attention is focused on this time. The writers Kozakov, Malashkin, Grabar', and Nikiforov were chosen because their naturalistic writings would give the most accurate picture of the time. While all four authors deal with the ills of the system, their different methods of investigation give a greater scope to a critical analysis. Each chapter of the paper presents the background of the author, some stylistic elements, deficiencies in the Soviet system and psychological effects on the characters. The writers are dealt with in the following order: CHAPTER I-Mikhail E. Kozakov "Meshchanin Adameyko" CHAPTER II-Sergey I. Malashkin "Luna s pravoy storony" CHAPTER III-Leonid Y. Grabar' "Lakhudrin pereulok" and "Na kirpichakh" CHAPTER IV-Georgiy K. Nikiforov “U fonarya” and “Ztienshcnina” The conclusion points out that the results of the revolution were far from what was expected at its inception. Much, of the Communist ideology worked against the psychological make-up of the people causing endless frustrations. The failure of the Party to consider human character brought out undesirable factions and destroyed some of the most worthy elements in the society; thus, retarding the progress towards its own goal. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

One of the great superpowers in recent history experienced a tumultuous final decade, shining a light on several important policies of economic reform known as perestroika, championed by General Secretary of the USSR Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. According to, for instance, Stuart and Gregory, the reforms aimed at renewing making the Soviet economy more efficient. In this essay, the impact of the reform on the economy is subject of analysis.The subject is approached the topic via literature research on the topic of 1980s USSR economic problems, combined with key aggregate data on economic conditions (i.e. grain yield production, GDP per capita pre- and post-perestroika, foreign trade, life expectant pre-and post-perestroika). The thesis concluded that perestroika was unable to salvage the USSR, in fact, conditions only worsened after its administration, following into the 1990s.