Russia

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Russia

• the Newly Independent States

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2.5 times size of US 11 tine zones, 230 m
people 15 countries (former USSR)
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
• Soviet Union
• Collapsed in December 1991
• Replaced by loose federation of Commonwealth of
  Independent States
• 15 Independent Countries
• Baltic states, (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and
  Georgia did not join
• (Georgia did later, but left recently!)

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Slavic Coreland Russia, Belarus, Moldova,
Ukraine
Caucasia Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
Central Asia Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Physical Geography
• North European Plain
• Ural Mountains
• Western Siberian Plain
• (a marshy lowland)
• Central Siberia Plateau
• Russian Far East
• Steppe lands to the south

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Even colder and wetter in the north east
Harsh Cold continental climates long v. cold
winter short cool summer
South warm long hot summer short cold winter
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Population
• Most live west of Ural Mountains
• (European Russia) Black Sea to the Baltic Sea
• Stretches east past the Urals to Chelyabinsk and
  thinning out further toward Novosibirsk
• Concentrations around Black Sea and Caspian Sea
• Much of remainder uninhabited
• Some conc. around Aral Sea, Tashkent and Dushanbe
• A few smaller industrial cities in Siberia

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History of Region (Rise of Russian Empire)
By 17th century Moscow area had conquered area
from Baltic Sea to Pacific Mid 19th century
Russia conquering Central Asia (to control
cotton)
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Highly stratified
• Ruled by Czar (Tsar)
• Small aristocracy (living in splendor)
• Vast majority were serfs (tied to the land)

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Vast majority were serfs (tied to the land)
• 2 disastrous wars (Japan, 1905 WWI)
• Czar Nicholas II overthrown
• Bolsheviks come to power (after brief civil war)
• Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924)

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Joseph Stalin (1924-1950)
• Brutal ethnic/political killings (20m dead),
  political killings, secret police etc.
• Set stage for much of the rest of the S.U.
  leadership style
• Probably squashed any chance that communism might
  work

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• 1950 to 1985
• Political will imposed via violence
• Cold war with West
• Oppression of all dissent within the S.U.

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991)
• Tried to fix the problems
• Glasnost openness or transparency in Government
• Corruption, abuse of privilege, freedom of press
• Perestroika (restructuring)
• Market reforms

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Decentralized decision making
• long standing resentment against government
• independence movements, political tensions etc.
• Collapse of S.U. 1991

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Why did Soviet Union Collapse?
• Large state owned agricultural collectives
• Not efficient
• Industrial productivity grew in early years
• Oriented to military production
• No incentive for efficiency (price, profit)
• No link to consumer demand

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Various other proxy wars
• U.S. versus S.U. over much of the world
  1950s-1980s
• Afghanistan War
• Crisis of Soviet Military
• ie., invincibility of S.U. army
• Soviet Society
• Returning body bags,
• Super-power military build-up with the U.S.
• Exhausting economy during the 1980s
• Internal corruption, violence
• Societal inertia (stagnation)

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Economy Potential and Problems
• Command Economy
• State run, bureaucratically planned, spatially
  allocated
• Attempt to efficiently organize distribute
  wealth more equally
• Gosplan Government plan for production goals
• Miscalculations in linkage to actual demand
• from other firms or customers
• Huge gluts (oversupply) and acute scarcities
• Result in a very inefficient set of inter-firm
  linkages

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Giant large scale production favored
• Idea to minimize equipment and resources needed
• e.g., all machinery for harvesting
• cotton,
• corn,
• potatoes
• Made in single factorieseach in a different
  republic
• Result
• no competitors no incentive to increase quality
  and efficiency
• Huge Diseconomies of scale

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Industrial Location logic
• Discourage republic self-sufficiency
• Encourage inter-republic trade
• Flawed (see next slide)
• locations did not make economic sense
• Higher transport costs
• Higher labor costs
• Higher production costs
• In long run may be positive
• Encourage republics to cooperate in production

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Type of products produced
• Iron and steel
• textiles
• industrial chemicals
• Little demand in the West
• Often tariff protected
• Restructured and (now) more efficient in West
• No real market based tradition
• Buying and selling for profit
• Pricing competitively
• Market based employment

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• So what to do?
• shock therapy
• Rapidly remove regulatory mechanisms (e.g., price
  controls)
• Skyrocketing inflation
• Wiped out the what little savings the middle
  classes had in attempt to purchase basic
  necessities
• Privatize the economy
• Corruption good business opportunities
• oil, gas, timber, metals went to people with
  connections
• New Russian Oligarchs e.g.,Mikhail Khodorkovsky

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• 75 of Russian Economy private
• Large state owned factories continue to be
  subsidized
• Devastate local communities if closed
• Would lead to high rates of unemployment
• Civic instability

Old factories, surrounding by large apartment
blocks
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Private formal economy
• Basic necessities
• Luxury goods
• Resource based goods oil/gas, timber, minerals
• Private informal economy
• Cooked food
• Vodka (bathtub style)
• Assembling 2nd hand goods
• Smuggling
• e.g., Consumer goods

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Tax structure
• Many businesses outside the tax structure
• Smaller businesses
• Large resource businesses pay little tax
  (corruption)
• Informal economy too fragile to tax
• Very difficult to change the tax structure
• Escalating costs to the economy

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Widespread corruption a major obstacle to reform
• Disillusionment with
• free-wheeling capitalism and democracy
• New emphasis on primary commodities
• Oil, gas, timber, other minerals
• Rapidly increasing prices for fossil fuels has
  made Russia quite wealthy now
• How sustainable?
• Preference for civic order
• Vladimir Putin

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Culture, Nationality and Political Issues
• Tsarist Russia
• Empire and Russification
• One true language
• Russian orthodoxy one true church
• Land of Russia was sacred
• Russians as superior to other cultural groups
• Needed to become a good Russian to get ahead
• Result resentment against Russian dominance

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History of Region (Rise of Russian Empire)
Russian Empire A mosaic of different cultures
with Russians the most powerful and dominant
group
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Soviet Russia
• Lenin
• Divided the country into various administrative
  divisions
• Republics
• sub-divisions
• oblasts
• autonomous republics
• autonomous districts

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Goal
• give the various regions some self
  determination
• (i.e., keep local cultural traditions, languages,
  (but not religion)
• Russification continued at same time
• Learn Russian language, history, study at
  University in Russia
• ie., become a Good Russian
• Plus, membership of communist party
• Influence of Moscow (Capital) and Russian culture
  very strong
• Resentment continued during Soviet times

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Migration
• Russians (culturally loyal party members) were
  encouraged to migrate
• control the economy
• control political structures
• control Technical/educational institutes
• Result large Russian enclaves in many of the
  new republics
• (e.g., Baltic States, Kazakstan)
• Question What nationality should they have?

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Current Nationality/Political Problems
• 80 border disputes
• Mostly due to cultural/ethnic conflict
• e.g., Chechnya (internal Russia)
• Chechnya wants independence from Russia
• Oil and Russian Nationalism
• Terrorism (Islamic, homegrown) or freedom
  fighters
• e.g., Georgia
• (South Ossetia and Abkhazy want independence from
  Georgia)
• Russian Nationalism and Oil
• 20 of the 23 Republic borders are in dispute
• Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict over
• e.g., Nagorno-Karabakh

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Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict over e.g.,
Nagorno-Karabakh
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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Migration and ethnic cleansing?
• Over 25 million Russians
• 60 million people in general (see next slide)
• Live beyond the borders of their home country
• What should their citizenship be?
• e.g., Georgians in Russia Russians in Estonia

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Russia and the Newly Independent States

• Pan Islamic Federation?
• Western Sahara, through Arabian Peninsula to
  Central Asia?
• 55 Million Muslims
• Some linkage between Islamic insurgents
• from Uzbekistan / Tajikistan Afghan Taliban
• Some Taliban presence in Kyrgyzstan
• Turkish and Iranian proselytizing
• Radical or moderate Islam
• Huge cultural differences within the Islamic
  groups from Western Sahara to Kazakhstan

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Religion
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