Why do some state building efforts succeed when others fail? Using newly available archival sources, this book presents a new explanation for the rise and subsequent collapse of the Soviet state. The study explains how personal networks and elite identity served as informal sources of power that influenced state strength. Reconstructing the State also offers new interpretations of how the weak Bolshevik state extended its reach to a vast rural and multi-ethnic periphery as well as the dynamics of the center-regional conflict in the 1930s that culminated in the Great Terror.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Easter's superb study illuminates the heretofore underappreciated role of regional elite networks in the evolution of the Soviet state. This lucidly written book is a fine political history embedded in a sophisticated and useful theoretical framework. It is an important contribution to political science and Soviet history." Zoltan Barany, University of Texas, Austin
"This slender but well-researched volume seeks to provide new perspectives for understanding the collapse of the Soviet Union...Not the least of this volume's virtues is that it is not the final word about Krushchev but provides future scholars with a wealth of thoughtful insights and a superbly rich range of archival and bibliographical sources from which to begin further studies into Krushchev's policies, achievements, and errors." Slavic Reviews
"Reconstructing the state makes a contribution to the study of state building in the Soviet Union. . . . Although the book will be of primary benefit to area specialists, its lessons are also important for generalists in comparative politics and international relations. Easter's well-researched study reminds us that both formal and informal instutions play critical roles in building the political capacity of new states." International Politics
"This slender but well-researched volume seeks to provide new perspectives for understanding the collapse of the Soviet Union...Not the least of this volume's virtues is that it is not the final word about Krushchev but provides future scholars with a wealth of thoughtful insights and a superbly rich range of archival and bibliographical sources from which to begin further studies into Krushchev's policies, achievements, and errors." Slavic Reviews
"Reconstructing the state makes a contribution to the study of state building in the Soviet Union. . . . Although the book will be of primary benefit to area specialists, its lessons are also important for generalists in comparative politics and international relations. Easter's well-researched study reminds us that both formal and informal instutions play critical roles in building the political capacity of new states." International Politics
Book Description
Why do some state building efforts succeed when others fail? Using newly available archival sources, this book presents a new explanation for the rise and subsequent collapse of the Soviet state. The study explains how personal networks and elite identity served as informal sources of power that influenced state strength. Reconstructing the State also offers new interpretations of how the weak Bolshevik state extended its reach to a vast rural and multi-ethnic periphery as well as the dynamics of the center-regional conflict in the 1930s that culminated in the Great Terror.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet.
|
|||
|
Video reviews
|
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Throughout the twentieth century, the Soviet Russian state was most often depicted in the West as a modern Leviathan: omnipotent, imposing, and menacing. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
central state leaders, personal network ties, informal power resources, capacity for territorial administration, capacities for territorial administration, multiethnic periphery, prerevolutionary underground, class war tactics, core network members, formal bureaucratic lines, postrevolutionary state building, belykh piatnakh, informal network ties, coercive power resources, comparative theorists, central state actors, civil war networks, central patrons, sploshnoi kollektivizatsii, moderate bloc, fighter organizers, personal political machines, underground committees, based personal networks, extraction demands Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Provincial Komitetchiki, North Caucasus, Soviet Russia, Middle Volga, Red Army, Lower Volga, Central Black Earth, Far East, Boris Sheboldaev, Iosif Vareikis, Central Asia, Sergei Kirov, Stanislav Kosior, Valerian Kuibyshev, Anastas Mikoian, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Society of Old Bolsheviks, Filipp Goloshchekin, Lev Mirzoian, New Bolsheviks, Nikolai Gikalo, Robert Eikhe, Ivan Kabakov, Mendel Khataevich, Nikita Khrushchev New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Throughout the twentieth century, the Soviet Russian state was most often depicted in the West as a modern Leviathan: omnipotent, imposing, and menacing. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
central state leaders, personal network ties, informal power resources, capacity for territorial administration, capacities for territorial administration, multiethnic periphery, prerevolutionary underground, class war tactics, core network members, formal bureaucratic lines, postrevolutionary state building, belykh piatnakh, informal network ties, coercive power resources, comparative theorists, central state actors, civil war networks, central patrons, sploshnoi kollektivizatsii, moderate bloc, fighter organizers, personal political machines, underground committees, based personal networks, extraction demands Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Provincial Komitetchiki, North Caucasus, Soviet Russia, Middle Volga, Red Army, Lower Volga, Central Black Earth, Far East, Boris Sheboldaev, Iosif Vareikis, Central Asia, Sergei Kirov, Stanislav Kosior, Valerian Kuibyshev, Anastas Mikoian, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Society of Old Bolsheviks, Filipp Goloshchekin, Lev Mirzoian, New Bolsheviks, Nikolai Gikalo, Robert Eikhe, Ivan Kabakov, Mendel Khataevich, Nikita Khrushchev New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 91
books:
See all 91 books this book cites
8
books
cite this book:
See all 8 books citing this book
- The Industrialization of Soviet Russia: The Socialist Offensive (The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia, Vol. 1) by R. W. Davies on 5 pages
- The Origins of the Stalinist Political System (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies) by Graeme Gill on 5 pages
- Political Order in Changing Societies (The Henry L. Stimson Lectures Series) by Samuel P. Huntington on 4 pages
- The Making of the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia by Moshe Lewin on 4 pages
- Smolensk Under Soviet Rule (Classics in Russian and Soviet History) by Merle Fainsod on 4 pages
See all 91 books this book cites
- Russia in the 21st Century: The Prodigal Superpower by Steven Rosefielde in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Stalinism: Russian and Western Views at the Turn of the Millenium (Totalitarianism Movements and Political Religions) by John L. H. Keep on page 118, and Back Matter
- Russia in the 21st Century: The Prodigal Superpower by Steven Rosefielde in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Bussiness (Culture and Society After Socialism) by Alena V. Ledeneva in Back Matter
- Experiencing Russia's Civil War: Politics, Society, and Revolutionary Culture in Saratov, 1917-1922 by Donald J. Raleigh on page 75
See all 8 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Business & Investing > Economics
- Books > History > Russia
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political History
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Social Sciences > Sociology
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences
