Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 78, University of Essex (Department of Government), language: English, comment: This is an excellent essay. The argumentation is presented clearly and coherently structured. The selection of sources on which the answer is based is very good. It gives the essay not only a theoretical but also empirical perspective, thus, approaching the question in a comprehensive manner and enriching your argumentation. You demonstrate a very good understanding of the complexity of factors affecting Russia's future and you present them effectively. Very well done., abstract: Before forming any assessment regarding the presence of liberal democracy in contemporary Russia it is vital to investigate how conditions that either favour or harm the emergence of liberal democracy are fulfilled on an economic, social and political level. Using Robert Dahl's criteria of an "ideal democracy" (p. 33, Dahl, 1998) as a theoretical framework will serve us to contextualize Russia's current development to the notion of an ideal democracy. After balancing out the insights we gain throughout our investigation of the underlying features of the Russian system and the principles it relies on, we can then proceed to develop hypotheses with regard to the question of whether Russia is likely to become a liberal democracy in the short and long run. In what will follow, I shall argue that despite the considerable economic growth in its market economy, Russia's highly centralised government with a super-presidency combined with a still largely depoliticized society, which lacks indispensable underpinnings in terms of self-organization and belief in democratic values, imply that a transformation of society is a necessary antecedent to Russia becoming a genuine liberal democracy.

Borodin started work on his second symphony soon after the 1869 premiere of his first. He worked on it off and on until 1876, putting it aside for another project - misplacing his orchestral scores of the first and last movements in the process. When a performance was scheduled in 1877, Borodin had to re-orchestrate the two movements from his piano-4 hands score. This new score is a digitally-enhanced, corrected reprint of the one first issued in 1946 by Muzgiz. Editors Clinton Nieweg and Nancy Bradburd have thoroughly researached the source material to produce an extremely authoritative score of this renowned favorite of the Russuan master's three symphonies.

Borodin started composing his first excursion into the symphonic form in 1862, while studying with Mily Balakirev. He worked on it sporadically for the next five years, making revisions in the wake of an informal orchestral reading in 1867. The official premiere, at a concert of the Russian Musical Society on 23 December 1868 conducted by his tutor Balakirev, successfully established Borodin as a major force in Russian orchestral music. The score presented here is a digitally-enhanced reprint of the one issued ca.1946 by the Soviet State Publisher Muzgiz, itself a re-engraving of the score edited by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov which was published by V. Bessel after the composer's death in 1887.