"Who Is to Blame" and "What Is to Be Done"?

Russia is facing a systemic crisis, and the only way out of it lies in dismantling the defining political, economic, and social features of Putinism.

Samizdat in the 21st Century

Looking around Russia now, Putin's new critics see only the ruins of unfulfilled promises and wasted wealth.

"Oil-for-Food" When Oil Is Down (and the Ruble Is Weak)

Russia's population will find its access to food diminished by deep depreciation of the ruble, unemployment, and inflation.

Why Obama's First Outreach to Russia Is Bound to Fail

Washington has offered to sacrifice a pawn for the queen.

Ending the Gas Wars

Russia, the Ukraine, and the European Union all have work to do in finding a long-term solution to Europe's energy needs.

The Prop of the Knout

A historicalsurvey of Russian Orthodoxy suggests the danger of the church once again becoming an appendage of the Russian state.

Russia's Woes Spell Trouble for the U.S.

The Obama administration's inclinationto show good will toward Russia must be balanced against firm support for that country's return to political and economic liberalization.

21st-Century Sultanate

Vladimir Putin has harnessed patronage, nepotism, and cronyism to build Russia's corporatist state.

The Georgia Watershed

Russia's invasion of Georgia was far more than a singular emergency operation.

The Problematic Pages

To understand Vladimir Putin, we must understand his view of Russian history.

Russia's Next Target Could Be Ukraine

The Kremlin will say there is a Russian minority to "protect" in Ukraine.

The Politics of Memory

A new textbook approved by Vladimir Putin reimagines Russian history to the detriment of the nation's post-Soviet moral renaissance.

What Russia's War Reveals

The choice to invade Georgia exposes the raw disdain for democracy that drives Moscow's authoritarian government.

Back in the USSR?

Russia could soon face the same crises that Leonid Brezhenv's Soviet Union faced in the 1970s.

Putinism

The ideology, priorities, and policies of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin are almost certain to inform and guide Dmitri Medvedev's administration.

Putin-3

Vladimir Putin has transformed Russian foreign policy both ideologically and politically since coming to power in 2000.

Putin's Cold War

Let us refrain from the ritual, silly hand-wringing and accusations on the subject of "losing" Russia. Russia is not (and never has been) ours to lose.

Putin's Cold War

Let us refrain from the ritual, silly hand-wringing and accusations on the subject of "losing" Russia. Russia is not (and never has been) ours to lose.

Twenty Years after a Revolution by Culture

Glasnostwas an astounding act of the spiritual self-liberation of a great nation.

Jihadi Murat

Islam has been a major and durable aspect of Russia's history, geography, and culture.

We'll Always Have Putin

It is likely that Vladimir Putin will find a way to continue to serve as Russian president.

We'll Always Have Putin

It is likely that Vladimir Putin will find a way to continue to serve as Russian president.

Was Liberty Really Bad for Russia?

There was a great deal in 1990s Russia besides "chaos."

Was Liberty Really Bad for Russia?

Was the revolution responsible for Russia’s economic woes in the 1990s?

Russia's Succession Crisis

What will be the outcome--and fallout--of the 2008 Russian presidential election?

The Vagaries of the Presidential Succession

The coming Russian presidential succession is far from a done deal.

Yeltsin's Legacy

Over all, Boris Yeltsin will be remembered as a great liberator.

The Yeltsin Legacy

What are we to make of Boris Yeltsin,the man who led post-Soviet Russia in its first nine years?

Another Russia?

The chance for real democratic change in Russia is based in its history.

Russia's Turn

Leon Aron responds to a letter to the editor about his article "What Does Putin Want?" which appeared in the December 2006 issue of Commentary magazine.

Glasnost at Twenty

The twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the Russian revolution is a fitting occasion to assess the true scale and the impact of the national spiritual liberation known as glasnost.

Russia's Oil Woes

Moscow’s attachment to statist economic policy is undermining its bid for global energy dominance.

The Man Who Knew Russia Too Much

The death of Yuri Levada, the dean of Russian sociologists and pollsters, signifies the end of a remarkable era for Russia's intelligentsia.

Literary Engagement

Literary, social, and, in the end, political themes of Russian art have resonated with every generation of Russians.

What Does Putin Want?

Is Russia heading forward or backward under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin?

Property, Democracy, Trust

While the pressures of its political culture are strong, there is no reason why a formula offor democratization, a free economy, and humanism cannot work for Russia.

Ideas of Revolutions and Revolutionary Ideas

This path-breaking book for the first time seeks to explain the origins and the course of the latest Russian Revolution by placing it in the context of the great revolutions of the past.

The United States and Russia

The post-9/11 activist U.S. foreign policy cannot but be increasingly at odds with the Kremlin’s post-imperial “restoration.”

Ideological Drift

Russian and American values are so different that the two countries are drifting in different directions.

Only Iran Can Disrupt the G8 Summit

Are Washington and Russia growing apart? If so, what is causing the rift?

Russia's Oil

Several structural tendencies may significantly jeopardize Russia’s ability to meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for oil.

The "Mystery" of the Soviet Collapse

As we approach the fifteenth anniversary of the demise of the Soviet Union, its sudden collapse remains mysterious.

The 2005 Moscow Election and the Future of Russian Politics

The Moscow City Duma election of December 2005 yields clues to national trends in voter attitudes and how the parties should strategize in advance of the 2007 national elections.

Liberty above All

Forging a united opposition strong enough to contest the Kremlin's control over the Duma in 2007 and the presidency in 2008 is particularly urgent for the future of Russian democracy.

Democracy in Russia

Can a rejuvenated Republican party unify the liberal opposition to Putin?

Threats in Eurasia

Vladimir Putin's and his advisors' tendency toward greater state control and recentralization in politics, legal systems, federalism, and the economy is fraught with medium and short term risks.

The Battle over the Draft

The outcome of the struggle between the Russian state and the society for democratic control over the armed forces will go a long way to defining Russia's path for years to come.

Where Is Russia Headed?

President Vladimir Putin's government increasingly deviates from the democratic achievements of the 1990s in favor of greater re-centralization of politics and economy.

Death and the Dictator

Review of Stalin: A Biography, by Robert Service, and Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him, by Donald Rayfield.

Institutions, Restoration, and Revolution

Either the Putin regime must evolve toward full-blown "classic" authoritarianism or there will a reaffirmation and renewal of the freedom of media, judicial independence, and separation of power and property.

Libertystan

Leaders of former Soviet states may not be able to withstand the authoritarian temptation long enough for democracy to take firm root, but citizens will push forward until they live in freedom.

Putin's Risks

Vladimir Putin's re-centralization raised the center of political gravity to the very top at precisely the time when the Russian state will need every available ounce of stability and maneuverability.

Response to "Is Russia Going Backward?"

This letter to the editor responds to letters commenting on Aron's original piece "Is Russia Going Backward?" from Commentary.

Standoff in Ukraine

If, as expected, the pro-Western Ukrainian presidenital candidate ultimately wins the election, he will need to pay careful attention to the Russian-leaning millions.

The Decline of the Communists

The decline of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation signals the waning appeal of a set of beliefs which commanded the loyalties of over one-third of the Russian electorate.

Is Russia Going Backward?

Severely handicapped by its past and with the backslidings and shortcomings of the present, Russia's epochal experiment in liberty, popular self-rule, and non-belligerency is far from over.

Responding to Terrorism

Wars have repeatedly had a decisive influence on Russia's political development, and the present global conflict against fundamentalist Islam is no exception.

Privatizing Pensions

Russia's pension privatization epitomizes both the enormous progress achieved over the past decade and the equally huge obstacles still ahead on the road to "civilized" liberal capitalism.

How Reagan Made Soviet Society Face Its Failures

For Ronald Reagan, there was no "parity," nuclear or otherwise, between America and the Soviet Union. The former was superior for one and only one reason: its people were free.

Cool the Revolution

Revolutionary breaks in Russia's political and economic arrangements will take zigzags from democratic breakthroughs to reactionary retrenchment to find a balance between old and new.

The Putin Restoration

President Putin's reelection can be seen as the typical restoration after a period of revolution.

Domestic Determinants of Russia's Policy toward the United States

In the next four years, Russian policy toward the United States will be shaped largely by the components of a powerful and complicated social and political trend.

A Champion for the Bourgeoisie

Will we look back at the popularity of Grigory Chkhartishvili'sFandorin cycle as a signal that post-Soviet Russia has given the latter at least a sporting chance?

The Duma Election

In the recent Duma elections, Russian voters made what to them seemed like rational choices based on their immediate experiences and current political attitudes.

The (Russian) Empire Strikes Back

The lessons of the Yukos affair.

Crime and Punishment for Capitalists

The interests of Russia's industrial leaders may not always coincide with society's, but by winning the right to promote those interests, the oligarchs can advance Russian democracy.

The YUKOS Affair

Despite assurances by the government that the action against Menatep and YUKOS is nothing more than a routine investigation, the choice of the prosecution belie such claims.

Privatizing Russia's Electricity

The process, politics, and importance of Russia's electricity privatization.

Russia, America, Iraq

How U.S.-Russian relations will be affected by the war in Iraq.

Cold Warrior

Review of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman.

Chechnya

A comparative and historical analysis of the crisis in Chechnya.

Response to Readers' Letters

Russia's Revolution

Post-Communist Russia's ten-year-old experiment in democracy, civil and political liberty, and a free market is not unlike the movement of a long, disorderly caravan.

Making Sense of a Revolution

Russian Outlook's twentieth anniversary issue describes common errors in interpretation and predictionto equip ourselves better for the next five years of the Russian revolution.

Structure and Context in the Study of Post-Soviet Russia

The velvet revolution's greatest impact was on the nature and pace of the economic reforms, some key aspects of which were molded by the industrial nomenklatura.

A Private Hero for a Privatized Country

The most interesting phenomenon on Russia's literary scene today is the popularity of the Erast Fandorin mysteries by Grigoriy Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, who writes as Boris Akunin.

Russian Oil and U.S. Security

With another oil shock looming, the need to broaden the range of America's energy sources has become urgent.

Restauration

The shift to a more open Russian economy has given rise to a post-Communist middle class, which consists of the young, the college-educated, and the residents of large cities.

Russia Reinvents the Rule of Law

With the passage of a new Criminal-Procedural Code and related statutory reforms in December 2001, the long trek toward a true Russian Rechtsstaat—a lawful state—has achieved another milestone.

Putin's Progress

BeforeSeptember 11, 2001, few would have predicted that Russia would back the United States so firmly in its response to the terrorist attacks.

Russia's Choice

The 9/11 crisis has provided a dramatic opportunity for manifestingthe gradual strategic shift in the country's domestic and foreign policy priorities.

An Anchor in the Mud

Popular Russian novels as symbols of liberty and freedom.

Poor Democracies

Today’s struggling democracies must reconcile the conflicting goals of democracy and capitalism.

Poor Democracies

The post-Cold War era has produced something new in world history: an abundance of poor democracies.

Land Privatization

Privatization of Russian urban and agricultural landoccurred within a bare-bones and flawed democracy, often against well-organized popular opposition.

The Battle Over the Debt

In 2001, Russia’s foreign debt suddenly became the focus of an intense and acrimonious debate.

A Space Station's Long Goodbye

Commentators used Mir's descent as a metaphor for Russia's fall, but the station's decommissioning is a sign ofRussia's liberation.

Structure and Context in the Study of Post-Soviet Russia

Neo-Kremlinology has contributed to Russian distortion by reducing the vastness and complexity of interacting causes to plots of palace intrigues and epic plays.

In Search of a Russian Middle Class

In the past nine years the Russian middle class has done well, but a great deal could be done to further facilitate this success.

A Second Go at a "Second Economic Revolution"?

Should he fail to seize the unique chance to reform the socio-economic policies of the Russia, Vladimir Putin might forever be known for what he failed to accomplish.

Russia Doesn't Need a New Czar

Russian president Vladimir Putin is pressing to reduce the autonomy of regional governments and to concentrate power in Moscow, an effortthatthreatens Russia’s democracy.

Vladimir Putin

Putin has become Russia's chief executive without a well-considered strategic agenda and largely without a detailed policy mandate.

The Yeltsin Legacy

The dramatic impact of Yeltsin.

Putin's Order of the Day

Putin's Order of the Day

To bring stability to Russia, President Vladimir Putin can either expand state control over society or grant society partnership with the state.

Reflections on a Ravaged Century

Aron reviews Robert Conquest'sReflections on a Ravaged Century.

Chechnya in Context

It's time to put the Chechnya conflict into the broader context of our long-term relations with Russia.

Boris Yeltsin, Man of the Decade

At no time in the last eight years has the "de-Bolshevization of Russia"--which Boris Yeltsin embraced as his paramount goal in September 1991--seemed so secure.

Three Cheers for Russian Democracy

The recent Russian elections show a strengthened democracy in that country.

The Russian Election

The December 19 Russian parliamentary election has produced a remarkable shift to the Center-Right.

How a Battered Boy Made Himself an Iron Man

Biographer Leon Aron explains how President Yeltsin fought his way up in Russian society through a mixture of toughness and independence.

A Search for a Historic Yeltsin

Yeltsin’s legacy--a distorted but functioning market economy, and a flawed but real multi-party democracy--appears impervious to the desperate thrashing about in the Kremlin.

Is Russia Really "Lost"?

Suddenly everyone is asking, Who lost Russia?

Is Russia Really Lost?

Cunning Ruse or the Final Throw of a Sick Leader?

Putin is Yeltsin's fifth prime minister ineighteen months, but lumping his appointment with the previous three changes in the government is misleading.

From a Truce to Trench Warfare

Hopes for a political truce were dashed by the Communist-initiated impeachment drive in the Duma and by Yeltsin’s dismissal of the Primakov cabinet in response to the legislature’s action.

Waiting for December

Russian political landscape is changing almost daily as political actors maneuver in preparation for the parliamentary election and the battle for the presidency six months later.

Russia

Is there a usable free-market past somewhere under the debris from Russia's financial meltdown?

Bolsheviks Have a Glint in Their Eye

The Communist Party's recipe for economic revival is simple: a rapid return to fixed prices and state control.

After the Crash

The devaluation of the ruble andthe default on the government’s domestic debt marked the end of Russia’s first post-Communist regime.

Parliament Has Hobbled Yeltsin

The Russian Communist Party's rejection of compromise with the acting prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin,set thestage for an escalation of the Russian political and economic crisis.

Boris's Last Chance

The next few weeks promise to be as fateful an occasion as any in Russian history for the reformers to prove that they know whattodo.

What Stalled Russian Reform

Russia must implement radical reforms.

Crisis of Confidence

Without the vote of confidence of successful tax collection, Russian capitalism and democracy may be doomed.

The New Russia

An accord between Europe's largest (Russia) and its sixth most populous (Ukraine) nations is central to the stability of the post-Cold War European order.

Russia's New Foreign Policy

Never has there been a Russia less imperialist, less militarized, less threatening to its neighbors and the world, and more susceptible to the Western ideals than the Russia we see today.

The Remarkable Rise of Democratic Russia

Never has the modern Russian state been less imperialist, less militarized, less threatening to its neighbors and the world, and more receptive to Western ideals and practices than it is in 1998.

Yeltsin Crisis May Clear the Russian Air

Boris Yeltsin's Monday dismissal of the Russian government may have obscured his possible intentions, which could be part of the last grand political game of Yeltsin's career.

The Strange Case of Russian Capitalism

Russian capitalism is real and increasingly robust.

Yeltsin and Reform Survive

In the political configuration that emerged from the poll, a solid Yeltsin win in the second round on July 3 seems assured--provided that the turnout is at least equal to that on June 16.

Yeltsin Rises to the Challenge

Conventional wisdom in the Russian election today is largely doom and gloom.

The Cost of Velvet

Review of The Reincarnation of Russia, How Russia Became a Market Economy, and Privatizing Russia.

A Soviet PhD

The County Could Bypass This Piece of History

Don't Count This Street Fighter Out

A Word about Chechnya

If President Clinton, during his visit to Russia this week, were to confine himself solely to the official script, he would turn himself into a prop in a passion play enacted by the Kremlin.

A Different Dance

The internal condition of Russia has changed immensely for the better, and is continuing to change, though progress has not occurred as fast or as decisively as the Romantics had hoped.

Yeltsin on the Brink

As Russia winds down its first year under a post-Soviet constitution, the attention of the world is focused on the invasion of Chechnya, but it is only a symptom of an important development.

The Emergence of Russian Foreign Policy

Yeltsin's Next Nightmare

For the fourth year in a row, Russia is poised for an autumn that is likely to determine the course of its politics, not just for the balance of 1994 but for most of 1995 as well.

Russian Reflex

Surprise victory of the populist nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party emerged as the most important result after the adoption of the constitution.

Russian Vote Adds Up to a Backlash

Yeltsin Is Playing Poker for Democracy

Yeltsin's Vietnam

Russia's involvement in the messy, bloody, and apparently endless conflict on its southern border may break the back of Russia's fledgling democracy.

The Emergence of Russian Foreign Policy

The emergence of a new Russia--a post-communist European state with a vast store of nuclear arms--raises many complex questions.