The fall of the Soviet system was hailed in the West as a triumph of liberal and democratic ideals, but this euphoria was to be short lived. The Rise of the Russian Democrats traces the pro-Western democracy movement's development in Moscow and Leningrad from 1987 to 1991 and seeks to explain its eventual loss of direction, inspiration and popularity. Studying the democratic revolution from its grassroots, Judith Devlin focuses on how a civil society emerged in Moscow and Leningrad through the development of political clubs and associations. Their relation to the reform politics of the party leadership is addressed in her authoritative and insightful analysis. Arguing that the movement's origins contributed to its ultimate decline, the author explains how the intelligentsia's leadership of the popular democratic movement was usurped by new politicians who emerged from the lower echelons of the Soviet management system. It was these new politicians who were able to play the key role in the transition to post-communism, shaping the new institutions and focusing political activity and debate. The Rise of the Russian Democrats attempts to characterise the original inspiration, strengths and weaknesses of the democratic movement in order to explain political culture after the 1991 coup. As an exploration of the reasons for the slow and superficial nature of democratization in Russia, this book is of practical, as well as academic, interest for students, researchers, journalists and policymakers.

This volume of seventeen essays by members of the Department of History at University College Dublin is dedicated to the memory of their colleague Albert Lovett (1944-2000) who taught at UCD for twenty-five years. Covering topics from 1066, Edward II, The Lombard League, the Irish-Counter Reformation, Ireland and colonial America, Irish-born elites in Canada and the U.S., and nature and nationalism in modern Ireland, these essays provide lively reading on subjects covering a wide range of time and place, reflecting Lovett's own interests.

War of Words is a volume of essays on the role of propaganda, mass media and culture in the development of the Cold War in Europe. Exploring a dimension of the political and diplomatic rivalry of interest to historians principally in the last decade, these essays explore the cultural dimensions of the early Cold War. The powers felt it necessary to explain and justify to Europeans the division of the continent into two hostile blocs and to mobilise them behind these reinvented European identities, by drawing on elements of national tradition while at the same time invoking modernity. The mass media and popular culture (whose penetration into parts of Eastern and South Eastern Europe was still relatively recent) were harnessed to the demands of propaganda. Even the built environment was mobilised to this end. The antithetical character of the two blocs was not in all respects as absolute as it seemed at the time. Similar cultural and social trends influenced the politics of culture on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This book examines some of these similarities and parallels as well as the intentions and articulation of official policy.

In the English language World War I has largely been analysed and understood through the lens of the Western Front. This book addresses this imbalance by examining the war in Eastern and Central Europe. The historiography of the war in the West has increasingly focused on the experience of ordinary soldiers and civilians, the relationships between them and the impact of war at the time and subsequently. This book takes up these themes and, engaging with the approaches and conclusions of historians of the Western front, examines wartime experiences and the memory of war in the East. Analysing soldiers' letters and diaries to discover the nature and impact of displacement and refugee status on memory, this volume offers a basis for comparison between experiences in these two areas. It also provides material for intra-regional comparisons that are still missing from the current research. Was the war in the East wholly 'other'? Were soldiers in this region as alienated as those in the West? Did they see themselves as citizens and was there continuity between their pre-war or civilian and military identities? And if, in the Eastern context, these identities were fundamentally challenged, was it the experience of war itself or its consequences (in the shape of imprisonment and displacement, and changing borders) that mattered most? How did soldiers and citizens in this region experience and react to the traumas and upheavals of war and with what consequences for the post-war era? In seeking to answer these questions and others, this volume significantly adds to our understanding of World War I as experienced in Central and Eastern Europe.

In the English language, World War I has largely been analysed and understood through the lens of the Western Front. This book addresses this imbalance by examining the war in Central and Eastern Europe. The historiography of the war in the West has increasingly focused on the experience of ordinary soldiers and civilians, the relationships between them and the impact of war at the time and subsequently. This book takes up these themes and, engaging with the approaches and conclusions of historians of the Western Front, examines wartime experiences and the memory of war in the East. Analysing soldiers’ letters and diaries to discover the nature and impact of displacement and refugeedom on memory, this volume offers a basis for comparison between experiences in the two areas. It also provides material for intra-regional comparisons that are still missing from the current research. Was the war in the East wholly `other’? Were soldiers in this region as alienated as those in the West? Did they see themselves as citizens and was there continuity between their pre-war or civilian and military identities? And if, in the Eastern context, these identities were fundamentally challenged, was it the experience of war itself or its consequences (in the shape of imprisonment and displacement, and changing borders) that mattered most? How did soldiers and citizens in this region experience and react to the traumas and upheavals of war and with what consequences for the postwar era? In seeking to answer these questions and others, this volume significantly adds to our understanding of World War I as experienced in Central and Eastern Europe.