Complete the Process of Decolonization!

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Leonid Fituni
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
60Th Anniversary ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
External Dependence

December 14, 1960 marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption on the initiative of the USSR of the Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples by the XV Session of the UN General Assembly (GA). The author analyzes the significance of this act for the subsequent process of liberation of peoples from colonial rule from the perspective of the historical developments of the next six decades. The author comes up with a new interpretation of the diplomatic tactics chosen by the Soviet Union at the UN as well as in the confronting imperialist countries elsewhere on the timing of granting independence, ensuring the territorial integrity of the emerging young states, the presence of foreign bases and zones of extraterritorial jurisdiction on their land. The article provides a comparative analysis of the texts of the declaration proposed for consideration by the GA by the Soviet Union and the adopted version of the Declaration of the UN GA Resolution 1415 (XV). The author analyzes the situation in the world after the dismemberment of the USSR, from the perspective of the degree of completion of the decolonization process. He comes to the conclusion that in place of traditional colonialism, a project of a new global coloniality is being introduced, which preserves the fundamental and essential characteristics of actual colonial rule: external dependence and economic exploitation.

Гocкaпитaлизм, Coциaльныe Клaccы, Культуpный Лaндшaфт Coвeтcкoй Дepeвни Cтaлинcкoгo и Пocлecтaлинcкoгo Bpeмeни

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-337 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Specific System ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Agrarian Society ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1960S

This article analyzes socio-economic and cultural transformations in the Soviet village from the end of the 1920s until the 1980s. The authors identify the agrarian system of that time as state capitalism and reveal that during the 1950s and 1960s, capital that played a leading role in Soviet agriculture. The authors argue that the emergence of state capitalism was due to the interaction of the state, collective farms, and peasant holdings. The preservation of traditional peasant holdings allowed the state to build a specific system of non-economic exploitation, the core of which existed until the beginning of the 1960s. The authors connect the formation of agrarian capitalism with the creation of new rural classes. The authors conclude that from the 1920s to the 1980s, a combination of economic, political and socio-cultural factors led to the transformation of the agrarian society in the Soviet Union into the state capitalism.

Political Development

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Bates
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Modernization Theory ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Newly Industrialized Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Historical Developments

This article traces the trajectory of scholarship in the field of political development, beginning with the rise of what became known as “modernization theory” in the 1960s, which saw political development gain recognition as a subfield of political science. The article cites the works of prominent scholars within the modernization school and associates the birth of the subfield with historical developments spanning World War II and the war in Vietnam. It also discusses the transition from modernization theory to neoclassical political economy, made possible by the emergence of the newly industrialized countries and the fall of the Soviet Union. Finally, it considers the rise of democracy following the demise of communism, along with the study of political geography and the study of the historical determinants of contemporary politics.

Chinese policy toward the Third World and the superpowers in the UN General Assembly 1971–1977: a voting analysis

1979 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trong R. Chai
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Third World ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The Third World

An analysis of 344 selected votes in the four major issue areas in the UN General Assembly from 1971 to 1977 examines the question whether China has fulfilled its promise to support the Third World and oppose the superpowers. The findings are: 1) China was much more favorable to the Third World than to the West in this period and more supportive of the developing nations than of the Communist bloc on all except colonial issues; 2) China voted with the Third World more often than with the Communist nations, even when colonial issues were included; 3) China was least friendly to the United States on the majority of issues and in all years; and 4) the Soviet Union was the most anti-China nation in the Communist world, and of the four permanent members of the Security Council, Soviet voting agreement with China was the third lowest on political and security issues in the overall period and was often the lowest on arms control and disarmament. Thus at least within the context of UN voting, China has succeeded in developing its pro-Third World and anti-superpower position, particularly on economic and security issues.

A Glance at Persian, European, and Russian Historical Sources on the Manghit Dynasty in the 19th Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Qajar Period ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The 19Th Century

Historians confront numerous difficulties while doing research on Central Asia, particularly concerning the contemporary period. Historical developments in the relations between Iran and Central Asia, especially following the rise of the Soviet Union, have led to the creation of high walls separating Iran from those countries, and have made research and information exchange impossible. Historical sources for this period are scarce and inaccessible, and researchers cannot easily access the little that exists in the form of manuscripts kept in the archives of Iranian libraries. Moreover, the writers of the Qajar period have dealt with only a very small sample of the events that took place in that part of the world, and then mostly with those occurring along the Iranian borders. Thus, they reveal little about developments inside Transoxiana.

Armand Hammer, Lenin, and the First American Concession in Soviet Russia

Slavic Review ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Gillette
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
American Trade

In 1921 a young American doctor named Armand Hammer went to Russia, met Lenin, and undertook the first American concession in Soviet Russia. Interest in this episode has been heightened by the fact that fifty years later Armand Hammer, as chairman of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, forged new commercial links between the United States and the Soviet Union. This article provides a new interpretation of Hammer’s meeting with Lenin and his receipt of the first American concession granted by the Soviet government. It throws light on how Soviet national security objectives and personal relations can influence Soviet government decisions on American trade.

scholarly journals The Impact of Civil Society on Control of Corruption: A Comparative Study of Russia and Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir H. Estebari
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Status ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Control Of Corruption ◽  
Civil Societies

This paper studies the role of civil society in controlling corruption in public services in two developing countries: Russia and Iran. Research on the relationship between civil society and corruption control in these two countries is insufficient. Selecting Russia and Iran for comparison is based on similarities between them in terms of economic and political systems, and the developments of their civil societies. This paper compares the historical developments and the status of corruption and civil society in both countries; the efforts that civil society actors have made in battling corruption; and the state’s reaction to these attempts. This study covers a period of almost three decades from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to 2020. The findings of the study show that the civil societies in both countries have had limited impact on controlling corruption over the period. Although these findings do not support a prominent role for civil society in control of corruption in past, the author argues that, according to some evidence, there is a possibility of a stronger role for civil society in combatting corruption in both countries in the future.

scholarly journals From Dreams to Disillusionment: A Socio-Cultural History of the American Space Program

Ad Americam ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
Rafał Kuś ◽  
Patrick Vaughan
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Space Program ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Insight Into

This article offers an insight into the history of the U.S. space program, including its cultural and political aspects. Starting from the vision of space as a new field of peaceful and exciting exploration, predominant in the first half of the 20th century, moving through the period of the intensive and eventually fruitful Cold War competition between the two belligerent ideological blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union, and ending with the present-day cooling of the space enthusiasm, it focuses on the main actors and eventsof the century-long struggle for reaching the stars. The article is based in part on primary journalistic sources in order to capture the social atmosphere of the times it focuses on. It points out to the mid-1960s as the time when the noble aspirations and optimism of the early cosmic endeavors started to succumb to the pressure of reality, which caused the overwhelming stagnation of space initiatives, effectively ending the Golden Age of extraterrestrial exploration. This argument is backed by an analysis of historical developments leading to and following the American conquest of the Moon.

Double or Nothing

2019 ◽  
pp. 231-252
Author(s):  
Anand Toprani
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Technical Details ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Strategic Context

This chapter places oil at the center of the Third Reich’s plans for the economic exploitation of the Soviet Union. It begins by reviewing Germany’s preoccupation with the Caucasian oilfields during World War I. The chapter then considers the strategic context behind Germany’s decision to launch Operation Barbarossa in 1941. It moves on to review technical details of seizing and rehabilitating the Soviet oilfields. Time was running out for the Germans, however—their supply position was already tenuous by the spring of 1941, and by the autumn Germany had burned through its entire operational reserve even as the German war plan against the Soviet Union began to stall. The failure of Operation Barbarossa ultimately doomed the German war effort, since the Third Reich lacked the means to destroy the Soviet Union before the entry of the United States into the war tipped the scales irrevocably against Germany.

scholarly journals Occupying Ukraine: Great Expectations, Failed Opportunities, and the Spoils of War, 1941–1943

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Christian Priemel
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Great Expectations ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Machine ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Cost

AbstractThe attack against the Soviet Union was ideologically motivated, but the timing owed a great deal to military and economic considerations. German hopes largely focused on Ukraine, which was expected to be both a giant breadbasket and a reservoir of essential minerals. But plans for the economic exploitation of Ukraine were flawed from the beginning and remained inconsistent throughout the war. Substantial reconstruction efforts only began belatedly and were accompanied by brute force that combined economic logic with ideological zeal. The Nazi policies of racist repression and mass murder were, then, both a means of and an obstacle to exploitation of the East. Yet, they were also successful: without the raw materials obtained from Ukraine, the Nazi war machine would have likely ground to a halt well before 1945. The cost of sustaining the German war effort was consequently borne, to a large extent, by the local population, which labored under appalling conditions both in the Reich and in Ukraine itself.

scholarly journals Postcolonial studies and post-Soviet societies: The possibilities and the limitations of their intersection

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 458-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Subotic
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Short Review ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Historical Developments

Starting with a short review of the postcolonial studies? origins, this paper considers the question of their application in the study of history and contemporary state of the post-Soviet societies. Aspirations of the leading theorists of postcolonial studies not to restrict their field of research on the relation of imperial metropoles (First World) and its (post)colonial periphery (Third World) have not met with the acceptance in post-Soviet societies? academia. With the exception of the famous debates on ?the Balkans? that are not the subject of this paper, the paradigm of post-colonialism is rarely used in the interpretation of past and present of the former socialist states (Second World). Rejecting the thesis of their own (post)colonial status in most of Eastern European countries is usually based on a rejection of the assumption of the Soviet-style communism?s ?civilizing mission?. From the same perspective, the Soviet Union is not considered a colonial metropole, but an occupying force, and the epoch of socialism is interpreted as externally imposed breach of the historical developments based on the European model. On the other hand, the concept of these countries? transition opens up the issue of their (post)colonial status in relation to ?Europe? as the center of economic, political and cultural power. Therefore, the postcolonial critique of post-Soviet societies is more often focused on the thematisation of neo-imperial domination and neo-colonial dependency phenomena, than on the explanation of their socialist past. The author?s opinion is that it doesn?t mean that a number of concepts of postcolonial theory - such as ?internal colonialism? - cannot be productively used to a fuller understanding of the Soviet past, nor that in the interpretation of post-Soviet realities? ?hybrid forms? the postcolonial studies cannot be of use.

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