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How will the future leaders of Russia regard the world scene? How
will they regard the United States, democracy, free speech, and
immigration? What do they think of their current leaders? And what
sorts of tactics will they bring to international negotiating
tables, political and otherwise? Featuring a new introduction to
the paperback that critiques the emerging theory of media
weaponization, No Illusions: The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders
provides an engaging, intimate, and unprecedented window into the
mindsets of the next generation of leaders in Russian politics,
business, and economics. In this book, one hundred and eight
students in Russia's three most elite universities, the training
grounds for the nation's leadership, reveal their thoughts on
international relations, neighboring countries, domestic and
international media, democratic movements, and their government in
focus groups; they speak candidly, passionately, and sometimes
sardonically about the United States. As well, Ellen Mickiewicz,
one of the world's foremost experts on Russian media, politics, and
culture, shows how their total immersion in the world of the
internet - an immersion that sets them apart from the current
generation of Russian leadership and much of the rest of the
country - frames the way that they think and affects their trust in
their leaders, the media, and their colleagues. Their worldviews
are complex and often contradictory, reflecting complicated
personalities that are adaptable yet also subject to much internal
strife and "splintering." For example, while many of them are
planning to go into politics, they express ambivalence about
voting; they have favorable views of democracy, but not of the
American model; they are shrewd critics of government propaganda
and yet have clearly absorbed residue of Cold War defensiveness.
Mickiewicz also looks at the nation's massive protests and nascent
political movements to show how they came about and to consider
what promise they might hold even in times of narrowing
opportunities. She profiles several of Russia's up-and-coming
leaders, including charismatic and controversial activist and
politician Aleksei Navalny, who, even during his legal trials and
house arrest, remains the face of the opposition to the Putin
regime. As this book shows, the next generation of Russian
leadership promises to hold a rather different worldview from that
of the current one, yet it is not a worldview that readily embraces
American democracy. No Illusions is a thought-provoking and often
surprising glimpse into the future of Russia's foreign relations.
The Russian media are widely seen to be increasingly controlled by
the government. Leaders buy up dissenting television channels and
pour money in as fast as it haemorrhages out. As a result, TV news
has become narrower in scope and in the range of viewpoints which
it reflects: leaders demand assimilation and shut down dissenting
stations. Using original and extensive focus group research and new
developments in cognitive theory, Ellen Mickiewicz unveils a
profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian
leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the
viewers on the other side of the screen. This is the first book to
reveal what the Russian audience really thinks of its news and the
mental strategies they use to process it. The focus on ordinary
people, rather than elites, makes a strong contribution to the
study of post-communist societies and the individual's relationship
to the media.
The Russian media are widely seen to be increasingly controlled by
the government. Leaders buy up dissenting television channels and
pour money in as fast as it haemorrhages out. As a result, TV news
has become narrower in scope and in the range of viewpoints which
it reflects: leaders demand assimilation and shut down dissenting
stations. Using original and extensive focus group research and new
developments in cognitive theory, Ellen Mickiewicz unveils a
profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian
leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the
viewers on the other side of the screen. This is the first book to
reveal what the Russian audience really thinks of its news and the
mental strategies they use to process it. The focus on ordinary
people, rather than elites, makes a strong contribution to the
study of post-communist societies and the individual's relationship
to the media.
At 7:20 pm on October 3, 1993, a nervous and shaky anchor broke
into coverage of a soccer match to tell Russian viewers that their
state television was shutting down. In the opening salvos of the
parliamentary revolt against Boris Yeltsin's government, a mob had
besieged the station's headquarters. A man had just been killed in
front of the news director. Moments later, screens all across
Russia went blank, leaving audiences in the dark. But in less than
an hour, Russia's second state channel went on the air. Millions
watched as Sergei Torchinsky anchored thirteen straight hours of
coverage, often with the sound of shooting clearly audible in the
background. Streams of politicians, trade union leaders, writers,
television personalities, and other well-known figures braved
gunfire to reach Channel Two's makeshift studios and speak directly
to the nation. In one stunning moment, a famous actress
extemporaneously pleaded with viewers not to return to the horrors
of Stalinism. Boris Yeltsin, who had been glued to his television
set like everyone else, later recalled, "For the rest of my life I
will remember the anxious but resolute and courageous expression of
Liya Akhedzhakova. . . her hoarse, cracking voice remains in my
memory."
In that time of crisis, television bound the nation together, a
continuing emblem of legitimate authority which lent an image of
stability and credibility to Yeltsin's besieged government.
"Television saved Russia," the Russian president said. Changing
Channels vividly recreates this exciting time, as television both
helped and hindered the Russian nation's struggle to create a new
democracy. From the moribund, state-controlled television
broadcasts at the end of the Soviet Union, through Mikhail
Gorbachev's glasnost, up to Yeltsin's victory in the most recent
Russian presidential elections of 1996, Mickiewicz charts the
omnipresent role of television, drawing on interviews, public
opinion surveys, research, and the television programming itself.
Analyzing the rise of political advertising (sometimes with
controversial US participation), the birth of journalists as
opinionated television personalities, and the changing news
coverage of coups, elections, and wars, she shows both how the
gradual development of private, independent stations has begun to
make real pluralism possible and how the authoritarian legacy of
the Soviet state structure continues to affect Russian television
even today. With television in 97% of all Russian households, and
the nightly news watched by a viewership matching that for the
Super Bowl in the US, the struggle for control over television
became the struggle for control over the nation. Mickiewicz
illuminates the efforts of those both in and out of power to
control the media.
Behind the momentous political changes are the stories of the men
and women who chose to resist, test, or submit to the system.
Mickiewicz offers brilliant sketches of these individuals: Yegor
Ligachev, Gorbachev's second in command, a man of strongly held
opinions who, in retirement, still orated loudly, even over tea;
Boris Yeltsin, having not even put on his shirt yet, watching the
early morning coverage of the attempted coup against Gorbachev; or
the new breed of Russian journalists covering the war in Chechnya
with footage of bombed out streets and charred corpses for
privately owned NTV, despite continuing government intimidation. In
vivid interviews, all the key players, including Gorbachev himself,
offered Mickiewicz their unique insights and frank personal
commentary. Drawing on these interviews and on her extensive
research on the interactions of politics, economics, and society,
Mickiewicz presents a rich and authoritative analysis of television
in Russia. In many ways, Mickiewicz writes, no other country in the
world offers television a greater opportunity and a greater role.
Changing Channels tells the fascinating story of a truly modern
phenomenon: the struggle to create genuine political pluralism,
helped and hindered by the barrage of information, advertisements,
and media-created personalities that make up modern television.
Television has changed drastically in the Soviet Union over the
last three decades. In 1960, only five percent of the population
had access to TV, but now the viewing population has reached near
total saturation. Today's main source of information in the USSR,
television has become Mikhail Gorbachev's most powerful instrument
for paving the way for major reform.
Containing a wealth of interviews with major Soviet and American
media figures and fascinating descriptions of Soviet TV shows,
Ellen Mickiewicz's wide-ranging, vividly written volume compares
over one hundred hours of Soviet and American television, covering
programs broadcast during both the Chernenko and Gorbachev
governments. Mickiewicz describes the enormous significance and
popularity of news programs and discusses how Soviet journalists
work in the United States. Offering a fascinating depiction of the
world seen on Soviet TV, she also explores the changes in
programming that have occurred as a result of glasnost.
International Security and Arms Control examines the impact of arms
control and nuclear strategy issues on the relationship between the
United States and the Soviet Union. Based on a conference held at
Emory University, this book's contributors include former
Presidents Ford and Carter, as well as Henry Kissinger, Anatoly
Dobrynin, and other current or former important American and
foreign government officials and academic experts. They explore the
interaction between regional conflicts and superpower policies, how
new technologies affect the status quo, and the past record and
future prospects for negotiations. Including an examination of U.S.
allies and non-nuclear nations, this important and timely new work
will appeal to the specialist or layman interested in this critical
issue.
What will the next generation of Russian leaders be like? How will
they regard the United States, democracy, free speech, and
immigration? What do they think of their current leaders? And what
sorts of tactics will they bring to international negotiating
tables, political and otherwise? No Illusions provides an engaging,
intimate, and unprecedented window onto the mindsets of the next
generation of leaders in Russian politics, business, and economics.
In it, Ellen Mickiewicz, one of the world's foremost experts on
Russian media, politics and culture, draws on interviews with
students in Russia's three most elite universities, the training
grounds for all of the nation's leadership. Allowing these students
to speak in their own words, she shares their thoughts on
international relations, the domestic and international media,
democracy, and their government. She also shows how their total
immersion in the world of the internet - an immersion that sets
them apart from the current generation of Russian leadership and
much of the rest of the country - frames the way that they think
and affects their trust in their leaders, the media, and their
colleagues. They view the world around themselves with soberness
and deep skepticism. Their worldviews are complex and often
contradictory, reflecting complicated personalities who are
adaptable, yet also subject to much internal strife. Many plan for
future careers in politics while expressing ambivalence about the
political process; they proclaim cosmopolitan worldviews and deeply
xenophobic attitudes at the same time; they have favorable views of
democracy, but not of the American model; they are shrewd critics
of government propaganda and yet clearly have absorbed residue of
Cold War paranoia. Mickiewicz also looks at the nation's recent
protests and nascent political movements to show how they came
about and to consider what promise they might hold for a more
democratic Russia. She profiles several of Russia's up-and-coming
leaders, including charismatic and controversial activist and
politician Aleksei Navalny, perhaps one of the more formidable
threats to the Putin regime. As this book shows, the next
generation of Russian leaders will almost certainly hold a
worldview different from the current one, but it is not likely to
be a worldview that readily embraces American democracy. No
Illusions is a thought-provoking and often surprising glimpse into
the future of Russia's foreign relations.
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