From Glasnost to the Internet: Russia's New Infosphere [Hardcover]

Frank Ellis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 031221765X | ISBN-13: 978-0312217655 | Publication Date: December 1998

The Soviet collapse of 1991 - the Great August liberation - demonstrated the total exhaustion of Marxist Leninist agitation and propaganda. It was no longer possible to live on slogans. The failure of Soviet agitprop is also the failure of Soviet censorship the latter being a unique institution in anti-thought. This volume analyzes the consequences of censorship, before tackling the media legislation of the Russian Federation and the dangers to the free flow of information emerging both within and outside the Russian Federation.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

FRANK ELLIS is a former Russian military interpreter and Soviet analyst in the British Army. He is currently the Reuter Foundation Lecturer in Russian and East European Media at the University of Leeds. Prior to his appointment at Leeds, he taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one academic year. In addition to the media, he has published articles on Soviet war literature. His monograph on the Soviet Russian writer, Vasily Grossman. Vasily Grossman: The Genesis and Evolution of a Russian Heretic, was published in 1994. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031221765X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312217655
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,459,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ideology of capitalism, June 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: From Glasnost to the Internet: Russia's New Infosphere (Hardcover)

The only thing this book is really good for is as a source of references and websites related to the topic. otherwise it is highly annoying as it's main purpose is to present to the reader the virtues of capitalism and the irreversible death of socialism. ellis manages to weave into his book his contempt for feminism and other movements in side sentences, despite the fact that these issues are far removed from the topic he is supposedly discussing. next time ellis writes a book i would wish that he would make his intentions more explicit, so people don't have to waste time sifting through ideological texts when they are in search of academic analysis.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars State use and abuse of information., March 18, 2000

By 

mark a. ackerman (University of Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: From Glasnost to the Internet: Russia's New Infosphere (Hardcover)

Professor Ellis' "From Glasnost to the Internet" is a brillant work of political and philosophical analysis of how and why information has been used and abused by states and their bureaucracies in recent history. He traces the advent and the impact of the internet on states controled by ideologial systems, like the former Soviet Union, as well as the responses by western bureaucracies to the manifold changes being wrought by new information technologies. Professor Ellis' work is a masterful exegesis of human nature in all its' political guises and an intellectual defense of the most elemental of human freedoms: free and open communication. Worth the read.