Post-Soviet Studies

THE COURSE NAMED AS ' POLITICS IN CENTRAL ASIA AND CAUCASUS ' IS INCLUDED IN THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM OF THE ANADOLU UNIVERSITY , FACULTY OF DISTANCE LEARNING - INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT. THIS CHAPTER OF THE BOOK PREPARED FOR THIS COURSE  AS 7TH PART. IN ITS UNIT, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION'S ENERGY POLICIES ON ENERGY RAW MATERIALS AND EXISTING ENERGY RESOURCES IN THE REGION; THE DOCTRINES FRAMEWORK UNDER WHICH RUSSIA FORMS NATIONAL AND REGIONAL 'ENERGY COOPERATION', ESPECIALLY THE EUROPEAN UNION(EU); THE CONSEQUENCES OF EUROPEAN AND ASIAN COOPERATION BASED ON RUSSIA'S' NEW INTERNATIONALISM ' APPROACH; THE TEXT AND EVALUATION OF RUSSIA'S CHANGING FOREIGN POLICY ARE INCLUDED.
AÖF - ULUSLARARASI İLİŞKİLER LİSANS PROGRAMINDA YER ALAN 'ORTA ASYA VE KAFKASLARDA SİYASET' DERSİNİN 7. ÜNİTESİNDE, RUSYA FEDERASYONUNUN BÖLGEDEKİ ENERJİ HAMMADDELERİ VE MEVCUT ENERJİ KAYNAKLARI ÜZERİNDEKİ ENERJİ POLİTİKALARI; RUSYA'NIN BAŞTA AVRUPA BİRLİĞİ(AB) OLMAK ÜZERE ULUSAL,BÖLGESEL 'ENERJİ İŞBİRLİĞİ'Nİ OLUŞTURDUĞU DOKTRİNLER ÇERÇEVESİ; RUSYA'NIN 'YENİ ULUSLARARASICILIK' YAKLAŞIMINDAN YOLA ÇIKARAK AVRUPA VE ASYA İŞBİRLİKLERİNİN SONUÇLARI; RUSYA'NIN DEĞİŞEN DIŞ POLİTİKASI'NA AİT METİN VE DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ YER ALMAKTADIR.

L’intento di questo lavoro è presentare un quadro che sia il più completo possibile nell’analizzare il percorso dell’Unione delle Repubbliche Socialiste Sovietiche dalla sua nascita, nel 1922, fino al suo crollo, nel 1991 e, successivamente, la delicata fase di transizione russa dal comunismo all’economia di mercato, cercando di mettere in luce i problemi incontrati dal Paese nell’instaurare la democrazia. L'ultima parte analizza la figura della Banca Europea per la Ricostruzione e lo Sviluppo ed il suo ruolo specifico nella delicata fase di transizione economica della Russia.

This study analyzes controversies and public attitudes concerning the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
and Stepan Bandera in Ukraine. The research question is: Which factors affect attitudes toward the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera in contemporary Ukraine? This article employs comparative and regression analyses of surveys commissioned by the author and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in 2009 and 2013 to determine the effects of regional and other factors on attitudes toward these organizations and the OUN-B leader. The study shows that regional factors and perceptions of these organizations' involvement in mass murder were the strongest predictors of the views concerning the OUN-B, the UPA and Bandera. Their public support is strongest in Galicia and weakest in the East and the South, in particular, in Donbas and Crimea, two major conflict areas since the “Euromaidan.”

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

Why is so little known about the KGB career of Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin? Most reporting on both sides of the Atlantic is thinly sourced, if sourced at all, and often conflicting. Was Putin a professional foreign intelligence cadre officer whose experience abroad exposed him to reformist ideas, as many claim? If so, how was he, the first Russian leader since Andropov to have lived abroad, and the leader who lived abroad the longest since Lenin, exposed to enlightened thinking from his isolated outpost in Erich Honecker's East Germany? If Putin wasn't a cadre intelligence officer, what was he? Determining with which part of the KGB Putin identifies himself will help determine what shaped his professional formation and experience and could serve as a guidepost toward the direction in which he will lead Russia. The KGB was no monolith. Its sprawling bureaucracy and diverse functions employed polished spies steeped in Western ways, scholars, linguists, mathematicians, engineers, paper-pushing bureaucrats, guardsmen, and the ubiquitous thugs, snoops and dissident-hunters that formed the core of the KGB ethos.

The issue of the political rehabilitation and glorification of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) became one of the central political issues in Ukraine after the Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan. It provoked major political and historical controversies and debates in Ukraine and other countries. Presidents Yushchenko and Poroshenko, their parties, far right organizations, and many Ukrainian historians attempted to recast the OUN-B and the UPA as parts of a popular national liberation movement that fought against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and to present the OUN-B and UPA leaders as national heroes. They denied, minimized or justified the involvement of the OUN-B and the UPA leaders and members in the mass murder of Jews, Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians.

The analyses of biographic publications, historical studies, and archival documents show that the majority of the OUN-B and UPA leaders and very large proportions of their members collaborated with Nazi Germany, mainly in the beginning of the Second
World War. Nearly half of the top and middle-ranked leaders of these organizations and
at least until the end of 1943 the majority of UPA members served in various police formations. They assisted the German occupation authorities in implementing genocidal policies towards the Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles by helping to carry out mass shootings and create conditions intended for the physical annihilation of the entire Jewish population and large numbers of Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles, specifically in Volhynia. The fact that many police commanders and large numbers of policemen in various locations and formations followed orders from the OUN-B by deserting en masse from their service, in particular in Volhynia in the spring of 1943, and forming the basis of the UPA shows that these commanders and police members were de facto controlled by the OUN-B.

The book examines the conception of transit culture from the perspective of postcolonial trauma that characterizes post-totalitarian Ukrainian culture at the beginning of the 21st century.  It probes the generational symptoms of resentment, commodification and kitschization with its psychotherapeutic effects. Special attention is paid to the analysis of post-Soviet novel, marked by the appearance of the loser hero, traumatized trans-generational memory, and manifestations of ailing body.

"The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist" is the first comprehensive and scholarly biography of the Ukrainian far-right leader Stepan Bandera and the first in-depth study of his political cult. In this fascinating book, Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe illuminates the life of a mythologized personality and scrutinizes the history of the most violent twentieth-century Ukrainian nationalist movement: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Elucidating the circumstances in which Bandera and his movement emerged and functioned, Rossolinski-Liebe explains how fascism and racism impacted on Ukrainian revolutionary and genocidal nationalism. The book shows why Bandera and his followers failed—despite their ideological similarity to the Croatian Ustaša and the Slovak Hlinka Party—to establish a collaborationist state under the auspices of Nazi Germany and examines the involvement of the Ukrainian nationalists in the Holocaust and other atrocities during and after the Second World War. The author brings to light some of the darkest elements of modern Ukrainian history and demonstrates its complexity, paying special attention to the Soviet terror in Ukraine and the entanglement between Ukrainian, Jewish, Polish, Russian, German, and Soviet history. The monograph also charts the creation and growth of the Bandera cult before the Second World War, its vivid revivals during the Cold War among the Ukrainian diaspora, and in Bandera's native eastern Galicia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The visual reconstruction of shooting at Maidan protesters and journalists demonstrates that Maidan protesters were shot by snipers in the Hotel Ukraina and other Maidan-controlled buildings during the Maidan massacre in Ukraine on February 20, 2014. The bullet holes identified in government forensic expert reports, videos, and photos from directions of the Maidan-controlled buildings are in the area, height, and directions that match the shooting of the protesters.  The forensic examination reports by government investigators, videos and photos by journalists suggest that journalists from ABC (Australia), ARD TV (Germany) twice, Associate Press, BBC, Sky News, and RT in the Hotel Ukraina rooms facing Maidan were shot at from the Maidan-controlled areas. The visual reconstruction and the same data along with videos and media reports by journalists from these media suggest that ABC News (US) and TVP (Poland) journalists in the Hotel Ukraina were most likely shot at by snipers from the Maidan-controlled Bank Arkada. They suggest that a Ruptly reporter in the Hotel Ukraina was hit by a ricochet from a direction of a Berkut barricade. Russian journalists in other three locations of the Hotel Ukraina were shot at by Maidan snipers and/or by Berkut and Omega, which shot at snipers at the Hotel Ukraina.               

The visual reconstruction based on similar data shows that the Berkut police and Omega were generally shooting above protesters at the second and higher floors of the Hotel Ukraina and in electric poles, a flower box, and trees. Synchronized videos show that Maidan protesters in the massacre zone were in a blind spot below the line of Berkut police fire from behind a truck.             

This is an online appendix H of papers presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in Boston and the “Regimes and Societies in Conflict: Eastern Europe and Russia since 1956” conference by the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University and the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies in Uppsala in 2018.

Since the 2003 revolution that brought to power President Mikheil Saakashvili, the post-Soviet Republic of Georgia has implemented a major programme of police reforms, including the mass dismissal of corrupt officers, the restructuring of police agencies, and significant changes in recruitment, training, and compensation. The reforms have eliminated many forms of corruption and have transformed what was a criminalised and dysfunctional police force into the most disciplined and service-oriented law enforcement agency in the post-Soviet region. The paper describes the scope and nature of these police reforms, analyses their effectiveness, and explains their origins. The Saakashvili government implemented police reforms as part of a broader agenda of reversing the decay of the Georgian state in the post-Soviet period and reasserting its control of the national territory and its effective independence from Georgia's neighbour, Russia. Police reforms in Georgia were also the product of a revolutionary moment in which the new government could take extraordinary measures to reshape the police. In part because the Georgian government remains domestically and internationally embattled, the reformed police have become closely associated with the Saakashvili presidency. Georgia therefore suggests that we need to rethink the different ways that democracy and state building contribute to successful police reforms.

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

The crisis in Ukraine, which began in 2013, has had significant implications for European security. Cristian Nitoiu identifies three perceived security threats implied by developments in Ukraine and how these threats may develop in future years: the threat of so called 'hybrid warfare' spilling over from the standoff between Ukraine and Russia; the threat posed by nuclear weapons; and the threat posed by more conventional forms of warfare. Perceptions of security threats are arguably more salient than actual threats, most times having a deep influence on the actions of states and other international actors. Hence, they play a key role in the way the EU, Kyiv and Moscow will shape their policies towards each other in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. While Russia can employ a wide range of capabilities, the EU and Ukraine have very few instruments to tackle security threats, be they traditional or non­traditional. In the case of Ukraine, but also more broadly the post­Soviet space, EU­Russia/Ukraine relations are affected by the perception of three types of security threats: so called 'hybrid warfare', nuclear threats and traditional military threats (i.e. territorial invasion). Hybrid warfare In the West and Ukraine the perception of the threat posed by hybrid war has recently increased sharply. The annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have put the spotlight on the way states engage in conflict by using a series of (sometimes innovative) tools and strategies. Hybrid war combines the use of conventional and non­conventional capabilities, the use of irregular troops, cyber­attacks, support for terrorist, rebel and criminal groups, or the use of the media and civil society for propaganda purposes. In eastern Ukraine in particular we have witnessed a combination of the use of both state and non­state actors by all the sides involved. States tend to use parts of this toolkit even in times of peace, however in such situations these instruments are not combined in order to pursue certain assertive foreign policy goals.

Personal reflections on “The Roots of Russia”, written by the late Dr. Lev Dobriansky (1918-2008), a renowned Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, and former US Ambassador to the Bahamas. The Dobriansky article was published, courtesy of the (US) Naval Institute Proceedings-April 1963, in An Cosantoir (The Defender), The Irish Defence Journal, Dublin in January 1964, under the auspices of the Irish Defence Forces. European coherence largely depends on two critical factors today: Russia's ability to respect Ukraine sovereign choices and to restore itself to international and multilateral collaboration, and Germany's ability to think "outside the box", and with some modesty realise that in the wider EU, it is a minority nation, for there is no majority one, and should therefore exert its influence more positively to build consensus around options and choices for European futures. Even Russia would be a minority country if and when it joins the EU. This neighbourhood no longer has any room for bullies.

Nel paese ove sarebbe in costruzione l'economia socialista non solo dunque esistono i rubli, coi quali il salario dei lavoratori viene pagato, ma esiste anche il risparmio sul salario, il deposito di esso nelle casse statali o nelle banche, la possibilità di investire l'accumulato risparmio in titoli fruttifero, da cui ogni sei mesi la salda mano dell'operaio, come quella delle vecchie signore che si affollano nei saloni delle banche, taglierà esitante la "cedola" dell'interesse, il borghesissimo "coupon". E con tutto ciò esiste del pari il pieno diritto di negoziare i titoli, venderli e comprarli, accumulare in quantità illimitata, e passare da stakhanovista a fannullonissimo "rentier".

This chapter seeks to assess Western and Russian influence on the collapse of Viktor Yanukovych’s regime. Drawing on the works of Levitsky and Way and Tolstrup, the chapter explains why during the 2014 crisis Yanukovych was able to withstand Western and domestic pressure much longer than Leonid Kuchma did in 2004, and why he was eventually toppled. I argue that Yanukovych’s ability to prolong his stay in power was circumscribed by three specific factors: his concentration of power, Russian backing and miscalculated Western threats to impose sanctions. His downfall, however, was ultimately determined from within the state.
The chapter contributes to the theory of hybrid regimes by extending the concept of linkage and leverage to non-democracies; it also offers an empirical measure of Russian anti-democratic influence on Ukraine.

Georgia, a small state in the South Caucasus, is the most ardent supporter of Euro-Atlantic integration in the entire post-Soviet region. Georgia’s possible membership in NATO looms large not only in terms of politics in the South Caucasus but increasingly in the tense relations between Russia and the West. In July 2018, NATO extended an official invitation to Macedonia, thereby processing its eighth enlargement. Zooming in on Georgia and Macedonia’s performance on membership requirements is a one-of-a-kind litmus test of perspectives of Georgia’s membership in NATO. The comparative analysis unveils that Georgia has outperformed Macedonia in all key areas of reforms and that NATO still pays more attention to geopolitical aspects of membership, rather compatibility with the Alliance’s requirements.

Hat die derzeitige politische Ordnung in Russland mittel- und langfristig Bestand? Die fundamentale Herausforderung der Fortexistenz des heutigen kleptokratischen Regimes Russlands in den kommenden Jahren wird das Zusammenfallen zweier systemunterwandernder Tendenzen – ökonomischer Stagnation und politischer Transition – sein. Deren kombinierter Effekt wird selbst kluge Kremlführung nicht ohne weiteres neutralisieren können. Es wird daher früher oder später wieder zu einem System- und nicht nur Führungswechsel in Russland kommen, worauf der Westen sich bereits heute einstellen sollte.

В статье рассмотрены точки зрения на проблему восприятия населением РСФСР товарного дефицита в 1950-е—1980-е гг., сформулированные в современной отечественной историографии. Структурно выделены различные исследовательские ракурсы анализа заявленной темы: от рассмотрения протестных настроений граждан, являющихся реакцией на перебои в снабжении товарами, до выявления индифферентного отношения населения к проблемам дефицита, и даже восприятия экономических трудностей как привычных, являющихся частью обыденной повседневности. Проведен критический анализ предложенных точек зрения, позволивший выделить наиболее аргументированные позиции.

Theories of hybrid culture and transculturalism are analyzed from the point of view of comparative literature. In the modern world the transformation of multiculturalism and
globalism towards transculture is an inevitable consequence of the complicated
processes of cultural interaction in all countries of the world. Transculturalism is an
alternative to multiculturalism as a product of globalism and has different rhetoric of
the Other. The transcultural concept, put forward by F. Ortiz as an alternative to the
asymmetric concept of acculturation in the area of cultural contacts, provided
opportunities for describing the complex processes of cultural interaction in the era of
globalization. Transculture is based on the cultural polyphony, in which there should
not be a complete synthesis, where the cultures retain some opacity. The concept of
transculturality can be used as a basis for a modern comparative analysis of literature.
At the same time, key issues of interaction of cultures in post-Soviet discourse are not
solved. Therefore, the study of methodologies of post-Soviet studies is important not
only as theoretical problem, but also as a problem of general cultural significance.
Therefore, the Caribbean philosophy, which is being built as a significant element of
contemporary comparativism in the field of interaction between cultures, directly
concerns the problems of choosing ways of further postcolonial development of postSoviet cultures. Transculturalism proposes the principle of hybridity instead of the
archaic principle of the purity of national culture, declaring the change in attitude to
national languages, cultural traditions and the very concept of nation-state, giving way
to the processes of transnationalization and polyglossia associated with the principle of the networked cosmopolitanism. This is a new relationship between languages and
cultures. Ultimately, this new andmagological interaction between the Own and the
Other. It is a search for a new unity of the various Others.

Key words: comparative literature, postcolonial studies, transculturalism, hybridization, multiculturalism, globalism, post-Soviet studies, cultural identity.

ЭРОТИКА, ИЛИ СТЁБ ПО ТЕЛУ Сочинением, вызвавшим едва ли не самый громкий резонанс в критике и читательской среде, стал написанный в разгар подготовки к чеченской войне (осень 1994) рассказ Владимира Маканина "Кавказский пленный" 33 , где-без указания на конкретные временные рамки-один из русских завоевателей Кавказа, некий солдат Рубахин, захватывает молодого горца, с тем чтобы впоследствии обменять его на своих плененных повстанцами однополчан. Из опасения, что горец выдаст его проходящим мимо соплеменникам, Рубахин вынужден задушить юношу. Перед убийством солдат испытывает, однако, сильнейшее половое влечение к своей жертве. Эротическое сопровождение господствует в рассказе над военно-исторической философией "покорения Кавказа" и предлагается Маканиным в качестве некоей абстрактной альтернативы войне: Рубахин остается служить "в горах своей любви". Это несколько слащавое сочинение, исполненное в стиле "ремейка" русской кавказской прозы 19-го века, указывает на другой распространенный мотив, господствующий в прозе начала 90-х годов и свидетельствующий о кардинальном разрыве теперь уже не только литературного авангарда с советской традицией асексуальности 34. Если в годы перестройки и первые послеперестроечные годы эротическая литература проходила по ведомству эпатажа ханжеского вкуса (Эдуард Лимонов), то к середине 90-х годов в критике появляется даже эпитет "затхло-эротический" (Александр Архангельский)-столь вездесущим и набившим оскомину стал этот мотив в литературе. Вместе с тем, в массовом внимании писателей к сексуальности, остающемся частью переживания свободы...

Hvilke konsekvenser har 70 dr med sovjetiske reformer hatt for de russiske samenes etnopolitiske organisering etter 1989? F0rste del av denne artikkelen tar for seg utviklingen av de russiske samenes etnopolitiske organisasjoner og lederskap pa 1990-tallet. I andre del belyses sammenhengen mellom dennepostsovjetiske utviklingen og politikken i sovjettiden.

The concept of „government effectiveness” is analyzed. The main approaches to the government
effectiveness in political science are defined. Indicators of the effectiveness of governments are
determined. On the basis of special methods the effectiveness of governments in post-Soviet countries is
evaluated. Correlation between the types of political regimes and indicators of the effectiveness of
governments in post-Soviet countries is ascertained.
Key words: government effectiveness, post-Soviet countries, quality of bureaucracy, transformation
index, status index, management index.

Проаналізовано поняття „ефективність уряду”. Визначено основні підходи до
ефективності уряду в політичній науці. Виокремлено індикатори ефективності урядів. На
підставі спеціальних методик оцінено ефективність урядів у пострадянських країнах.
З’ясовано кореляцію між типами політичних режимів та критеріями ефективності урядів у
пострадянських країнах.
Ключові слова: ефективність уряду, пострадянські країни, якість бюрократії, індекс
трансформації, статусний індекс, індекс управління.

Relying primarily on field research in the Siberian city of Omsk, this essay analyses a variety of ways in which state patriotic terminology is used by individuals and groups through the study of organisations and activities that deploy the patriotic label, such as schools, museums, youth clubs, and summer camps. Analysis based on fieldworksuggeststhatalthoughpatriotismincludesabasicconsensusaboutthehomeland,acluetothesuccess oftheconceptisitscapacitytobeappropriated,distorted,orembeddedindiverseunderstandingsandpractices. Easily ‘captured’ by different actors according to their needs and goals, patriotism also appears to be deeply rooted in the personal and the private. Everyday patriotism is thus far from being reduced to its top-down or official dimension. While patriotism is a tool that officials efficiently use to promote their political goals, it is also a symbolic resource that Russian society uses in its attempts to reformulate a new collective identity.

Education has always been linked to success. However, after the global economic crisis (in 2008) young people all over the world (especially in developing countries) have started questioning if the mentioned idea is a proven fact. In order to view if a diploma is a guarantee of a bright future in both developing and developed countries, this article is focused on examining the relationship between tertiary education and work attainment in Europe.

The paper provides theoretical perspectives concerning the latest employment realities and issues of the European youth. The statistic data presented in the work reflects on aspects like how much time is needed for a young person to find job and if the level of formal education defies success on the job market. The theoretical assessments of the European Union's youth education and employment enables to analyze current transformations in the learning system that the young Europeans are faced with. The conclusions drawn from the article will be the foundation of the examination of the youth employments trends in a developing country, like Georgia (to be discussed in the upcoming article).

Ces cinq dernières années, l’histoire des lesbiennes, des gays, des bisexuel·le·s, des transgenres et des queers en Union soviétique et dans l’espace postsoviétique a suscité un intérêt sans précédent élargit notre compréhension de l’histoire de l’expérience queer à la fin de l’Union soviétique et dans les États issus de son éclatement. Ses huit articles portent aussi bien sur le « centre » russe de l’URSS que sur les républiques de sa « périphérie » telles que la Géorgie, le Kirghizstan ou la Lettonie. Et celui qui nous entraîne vers l’Italie en dépasse le cadre en s’intéressant aux campagnes transnationales des années 1970 que menèrent des homosexuel·le·s, des artistes et des socialistes pour libérer le réalisateur Sergej Paradjanov, dont la brillante carrière entremêlait ses trois patries soviétiques : l’Arménie, la Géorgie et l’Ukraine. Dans ce numéro, les articles examinent la manière dont les queers soviétiques appréhendèrent et imaginèrent le désir homosexuel ainsi que la fluidité des genres. Ils s’interrogent sur la manière dont les queers façonnèrent leur subjectivité, construisirent leurs relations, refusèrent ou entérinèrent l’étiquetage médical, juridique, mais aussi social dont elles ou ils faisaient l’objet. Il apparaît que tous les articles de ce numéro sont marqués par des identifications et des intersections plurielles, croisant nationalité, désir sexuel, genre, génération ou classe sociale. Ils révèlent également que les savoirs transnationaux sur la dissidence sexuelle et de genre n’ont pas fait irruption soudainement en Russie et en Eurasie en 1991 ni n’ont été un produit d’importation en provenance d’un « Occident victorieux » de la guerre froide. Aussi étonnant que cela puisse paraître, ces savoirs sont ancrés profondément sur tout le territoire de l’URSS, et cela tout au long du vingtième siècle. Deux articles abordent des questions contemporaines qui plongent leurs racines dans le passé soviétique. L’un examine les pratiques et les obstacles au coming out tels que les ont rapportés des personnes queers en Russie. L’autre montre comment les éditeurs russes publiant des ouvrages d’éducation sexuelle à destination des enfants et de la jeunesse ont réagi à la loi de 2013 sur la « propagande homosexuelle ». Chacune des contributions de ce numéro se penche sur les défis auxquels sont confronté·e·s les queers soviétiques et postsoviétiques dans leur lutte contre la visibilité et l’invisibilité en tant que non-hétérosexuels.
Nous avons tenu à ce que les articles en langue russe ouvrent ce numéro spécial, car, lorsqu’il s’agit de l’histoire des LGBTQ, ce sont souvent les chercheur·se·s extérieur·e·s au monde russophone qui s’expriment en premier et le plus fort. C’est un déséquilibre dont nous sommes conscients et qu’en tant que coéditeurs de ce numéro spécial, nous tentons de corriger en demandant à nos lecteurs de considérer ces voix en premier lieu. Ces trois articles, de Georgy Mamedov et Nina Bagdasarova, de Polina Kislitsyna et de Galina Zelenina, ont suscité notre enthousiasme. En effet, ils offrent des perspectives nouvelles et stimulantes sur la sociabilité, la visibilité et la désidentification des queers. Nous poursuivons ensuite avec les articles d’Arthur Clech, de Rustam Alexander et d’Ineta Lipša qui se penchent sur la voix individuelle d’hommes homosexuels, telle qu’elle se donne à entendre à travers différents types d’ego-documents. Faisant écho à l’article de Zelenina, l’article de Clech aborde les questions de l’intelligentsia et de la classe sociale, tandis que celui d’Alexander nous emmène dans le domaine de la psychothérapie soviétique et des « thérapies » contre le désir homosexuel. Le diariste de Lipša explore sa subjectivité homosexuelle dans son journal intime où il passe, au cours d’une vie étonnante, par différents modèles d’interprétation de ses désirs queers. Enfin, nous terminons ce numéro avec les travaux de Stefano Pisu et de Bella Ostromooukhova. L’exploration par Pisu d’une campagne internationale contre la persécution soviétique des homosexuels masculins montre que l’histoire de la dissidence sexuelle et de genre en URSS ne se limite pas aux frontières de l’État soviétique. L’étude d’Ostromooukhova sur les manuels d’éducation sexuelle édités en Russie et traduits pour le public russe nous ramène au présent et aux controverses contemporaines sur la « propagande gay » ainsi que sur la prétendue influence transnationale sur la « Russie traditionnelle ».
Nous sommes redevables à Arthur Clech, qui a suggéré l’idée d’un numéro spécial des Cahiers du monde russe et qui a rédigé l’appel à contributions. Il s’est inspiré en partie de sa co-organisation et de sa participation au colloque 2017 « Communist Homosexuality, 1945-1989 » tenu à l’université Paris-Est Créteil et à l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Arthur a en outre contribué à part égale au travail de lecture, d’évaluation et d’édition des réponses à l’appel à communication et, pour finir, des contributions elles-mêmes. En tant que troïka éditoriale, nous sommes également redevables aux rapporteurs anonymes qui ont fourni à nos contributeurs des commentaires rigoureux et utiles. Que ce travail ait pu être réalisé, alors que chacune des parties avait à faire face à différents blocages liés à la pandémie et aux situations de crise de tous ordres qui en ont résulté, tient presque du miracle !