Vitality of Russia Book

This book is the product of two conferences on the vitality of pre-communist, communist and post-communist Russia, organized in Moscow by the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies (LIEIS) in association with the Moscow Public Science Foundation. The conference grew out of a long-term project entitled 'The Vitality of Nations', launched by LIEIS, which employs the investigative methods of the social sciences - economic history, social history, economics, sociology, psychology and political science disciplines - to reveal something of the dynamic of the nations under study. The authors have controversial ideas, especially on the present situation in Russia. A great Russian poet, Sergei Yesenin, wrote: 'It is impossible to see a face when you are face to face. A big thing can be seen from a distance only.