This volume contributes to a growing reevaluation of the Brezhnev era, helping to shape a new historiography that gives us a much richer and more nuanced picture of the time period than the stagnation paradigm usually assigned to the era. The essays provide a multifaceted prism that reveals a dynamic society with a political and intellectual class that remained committed to the ideological foundations of the state, recognized the challenges that the system faced, and embarked on a creative search for solutions. The chapters focus on developments in politics, society, and culture, as well as the state's attempts to lead and initiate change, which are mostly glossed over in the stagnation narrative. The volume challenges the assumption that the period as a whole was characterized by rampant cynicism and a decline of faith in the socialist creed and instead points to the persistence of popular engagement with the socialist ideology and the power it continued to wield within the Soviet Union.

The Iron Curtain was not an impenetrable divide, and contacts between East and West took place regularly and on various levels throughout the Cold War. This book explores how the European tourist industry transcended the ideological fault lines and the communist states attracted an ever-increasing number of Western tourists. Based on extensive original research, it examines the ramifications of tourism, from sun-and-sea package tours to human rights travels, in key Eastern European locations including East Berlin, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Albania. The book's analysis of the politics, culture, and history of tourism to the East offers important new perspectives on European tourism in the twentieth century.

This volume contributes to a growing reevaluation of the Brezhnev era, helping to shape a new historiography that gives us a much richer and more nuanced picture of the time period than the stagnation paradigm usually assigned to the era. The essays provide a multifaceted prism that reveals a dynamic society with a political and intellectual class that remained committed to the ideological foundations of the state, recognized the challenges that the system faced, and embarked on a creative search for solutions. The chapters focus on developments in politics, society, and culture, as well as the state's attempts to lead and initiate change, which are mostly glossed over in the stagnation narrative. The volume challenges the assumption that the period as a whole was characterized by rampant cynicism and a decline of faith in the socialist creed and instead points to the persistence of popular engagement with the socialist ideology and the power it continued to wield within the Soviet Union.

The Iron Curtain was not an impenetrable divide, and contacts between East and West took place regularly and on various levels throughout the Cold War. This book explores how the European tourist industry transcended the ideological fault lines and the communist states attracted an ever-increasing number of Western tourists. Based on extensive original research, it examines the ramifications of tourism, from sun-and-sea package tours to human rights travels, in key Eastern European locations including East Berlin, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Albania. The book's analysis of the politics, culture, and history of tourism to the East offers important new perspectives on European tourism in the twentieth century.

A comparative study of the famines of Ireland (1845-51) and Ukraine (1932-33), and how historical experiences of famine were translated into narratives that supported political claims for independent national statehood.

Russia increasingly emphasises the importance of 'soft power' for securing its foreign policy interests, but recent research has paid more attention to Russia's intentions rather than to the receiving end of its cultural and public diplomacy. This volume seeks to address this gap and explore the specifics of both Russian language promotion and its acceptance in a number of case and country studies, including Ukraine, Germany and Ireland. A range of scholars discuss the legal status and the practical use of Russian for communication or media use, both in the 'near' and the 'far abroad', examining the politics of the Russian language, the role of the Russian Federation in influencing these politics and the challenges that the promotion of Russian faces in particular contexts across the globe.

Russian policy documents increasingly emphasise the importance of miagakaia sila for securing Russia's foreign policy interests. Looking at the politics of Russian in a range of countries including the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ireland and Germany, this book examines Russian language promotion and its reception in different countries and across different contexts. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, the book examines the politics of the Russian language, the role of the Russian Federation in influencing these politics and the challenges that the promotion of Russian faces in particular contexts across the globe. Taking a comparative approach, the book also examines the institutional set-up and practice of Russia's language promotion in relation to its British, French and German counterparts and against the history of Soviet cultural diplomacy.