Democracy In Russia...
 

By the end of the year I need to write a 5000 word essay on democracy in Russia.

Now, I would like some assistance from the good people of GD. Out of 19 awful, awful questions I have managed to pick out 4 which I shall now present to you.

1) to what extent are the failings of Russia's recent quest for democracy attributable to the stunted development of (a) a Russian 'bourgeoisie' (as distinct from an 'intelligentsia') and (b) a Russian 'civil society'? And vo what extent are a well-developed 'bourgeoisie' and a well-developed 'civil society' prerequisites for democracy?

2) Did the Yeltsin regime do more to impede than to promote the establishment of liberal democracy in post-Soviet Russia? And were there politically viable alternatives to the Yeltsin regime between 1992 and 1996?

3) to what extent is the Putin regime doing more to hinder than to promote liberal democracy in Russia?

4) Why has the majority of Russia's population been plunged into poverty since end of the Soviet regime, what (if anything) can be done to allieviate this poverty in the near future, and how has such widespread impoverishment affected the process of democratisation?

I would like your opinions on the questions, and any links to articles that are of relevence would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

So you want us to do your work for you?

Are you going to pay us?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

P.S. I hope you're in high school, the artists where I study write at least one 3000 word essay every week.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Or do you mean you have to write 5000 words for each of the questions by the end of the calendar year?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Kind of...

I wasn't planning on it.

I was pretty much just looking for a bit of guidance asI would like a very good mark for this.

For the record, I'm Welsh and go to Swansea Uni so I've never been to 'high school'.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

One essay. 5000 words. Choice of 19 shitty questions.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

5000 or 500?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

5000.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

As I have said previously, at every stage of my education the word count has got less. In my post-graduate courses I have done, the word count has been about 1500-2000 words.

Anyhow, at a glance I'd imagine there's probably quite a lot of resources around for question (3) since there's a whole bunch of people who hate Putin. Hell, even Gary Kasparov has got in on the act.

You could easily do a lefty rant for (4). The dismantling of the old Soviet regime (in terms of the economic system) was probably the major economic crime of the late twentieth century. I seem to remember even the Financial Times referring to the sale of the state Gas companies as the steal of the century (or something like that). And then there was other small matters like the alleged theft of billions of dollars worth of Russian gold reserves (which I've not seen covered in any mainstream western source) and stuff like that. The whole thing was an utter shambles at best and blatant looting at worst.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

obviously 5000 words. It's not possible to write something meaningful about these four questions with 500 words.

First of all I would like to state that these questions are aweful. Seems that they are avoiding the fact that there is a correlation between economics and democracy.

1) The oligarks took over the russian state and plundered it. They controlled the media and the president, and were de facto rulers of Russia during Jeltsin. Since they plundered the state, they brought poverty and dispair to the ordinary people. Had they been allowed to continue, the russian state might have collapsed or spiraled downwords towards a third world state. b) Russia has no tradition for having a civil society, nor democracy like we know it. Also when people are poor, they are more conserned about getting food on the table NOW, then making organisations for tomorrow.

2) What-if scenarios are shit. Yeltsin & the so called "familiy" destroyed russia, plundered state assets, exploited all the natural resources, bankcrupted the state and got it in massive debt. Also look at the death-rates, you will see them climb enourmously. And from 1990 to 2000 there has just "disapeared" alot of people..

3) I think its a irrelevent question. Sadly.

4) It's called capitalism baby. It happened in all the former COMECON countries.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

When you were writing this post, what went through your head? More to the point, what was the true meaning?

Were you thinking: "This is useful information that will further this thread"? No, you were not.

"He might actually be in high school, I am interested in the answer" Nope

"I'm trolling, I hope this will turn into another thread where I can go on about Oxford" Possibly

"I want to mention that I am at Oxbridge once again, it validates me and makes me feel superior" I think this was a part of it

"I want to make the OP feel small/a failure" Almost certainly

gogogadget bracketing.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

At least Chelsea Football Club are doing well. ;)

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I wanted to make the OP realise that perhaps it might be worth attempting to do his/her own work, rather than sponging off GD posters. The thread is nothing more than 'here's my assignment, please give me all the references or even better tell me about it so I don't have to be bothered doing the reading'. It's clear from the way the OP writes that he/she is perfectly aware that between you all, you'd easily write in excess of 5000 words and is intending to just have you do the work instead. The shameless laziness of it ASTOUNDS me. So yes, the poster should feel small about it. It's disgraceful.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

He wasn't criticising your first post. He criticised the second one. The first post was cool. The second one was arrogant drivel.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

The rapid shift in demographics for the fUSSR to the present is unbelievably scary and deserves it's own study. I believe that as well death rates accelerating (as you say) birth rates dropped too. Combined with migration from East to West (to an extent worsened by a drop in the standard of living) the 1990's represented an utter collapse for the people's of those lands.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

obligtory "in democratic russia, people overthrow you" joke

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

what Jonny said.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I took Modern Russian History at the university. It was an eye opening class. It began with Peter the Great father (the first Romanov?) up until modern times but most of the class was basically Romanov policies and scandals. The Russian peoples were under a brutal serfdom-ship that lasted well beyond the emancipation's of the western Europe. In most European countries serfdom ended in the 1600's, in Russia it was abolished (in name only) in 1861. Freedom didn't follow, and many of you already know what happened after the Russian revolution.

The Russian peoples don't have a history nor a culture of freedom, instead they have the opposite. Russia, from what I read in the media, seems to be moving away from freedom. According to the December issue of Atlantic Monthly, Putin is expected to change the constitution to enable him to run for an unprecedented 3rd term in 2008. Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, according to the same source, is going to run against him from a minority party. The only other party that gets any votes is the communist party, but during the last presidential election only gained 18% of the vote - Putin got most of the rest.

Anyhow, I recommend reading up on Russia's very long struggle with serfdom. They wrote a lot about it in the 1800's. War & Peace deals with it extensively.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Firt of all, what is 'OP'?

Secondly, I am male.

thirdly, I am well aware of the capabilities of this forum, if I thought I would recieve crap adivce then I wouldn't have bothered. Also, knowing the range of websites people frequent here I thought they would have some handy sites which could be of assistance.

these were the best 4 questions out of the 19 that I could narrow it down to. So I turned here for assistance in making my final decision.

I was not asking for someone to do my work for me. I was merely asking for an opinion on the questions before I made my final decision.

As for lazy, I have spent the past 4 days reading one of the most boring books in the history of the world on this topic whislt bein ill and sleep-deprived.

I feel neither shame or small for asking for assistance where I knew it would be plentiful. Quite frankly, you need to get off your high horse because all you have done for the past few days is get all self-reightous and bitch about other people and it's getting a little dull.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

OP = original poster/original post.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

i'm not sure how this is particualrly different from wacking the title in to one of the many literature survey tools that're about. i'm not sure how reading and evaluating the stuff that people post on GD is much different to reading and evaluating 'the reading' - if anything i'd have said it was harder.

are you saying that you've never asked anyone for guidance over material for your work?

and for something completely different, it must be damned hard to come up with 3000 origonal words a week after a few years - artist(?!?) or not, you'd think people would run out.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

If the OP were in highschool, 5000 words is quite a lot (plus it's a lot more obvious to teachers if the child hasn't written it him/herself). If it's a huge assignment, asking friends for some pointers to give you a clue where to start isn't really that bad, and probably won't make much of a dent in what, to a child, is quite a lot of work. The child will still do the majority of it him/herself.

But if you're at uni, for pity's sake, 5000 is NOT a lot of work. If the OP had said 'hey I've done a load of work on this, and this is what I've found, does anyone know of anything that would give me another angle?' then I'd prolly have gone off googling it myself.

It was just my way of saying 'You blatantly haven't even tried, it's not an impossible task, and yet you want us to do it for you. Just get on with it.'

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I find it very hard to believe that the literal meaning of your words is what you meant. Stick by that if it makes you feel better though, we all know the truth :)

edit: that was the whole point of my post, if you didnt get it

fakedit2: actually, i suppose you didnt, since your first reply was only slightly more bizarre than your most recent one. Ho hum.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Woah, steady on. OK, you were asking for opinions on which questions to answer. To me, an opinion on a question like an essay title is your opinion on what the question is asking about, rather than something like 'I think this is a hard question'. If you re-read your original post bearing mind that 'opinions on the questions' may be read as 'opinions on what the questions above are asking about' you'll probably appreciate why I thought you were out of line! (I still think it's still a little cheeky to ask people to give you the references tho, because finding the references is often the hardest part!)


mist, it's not too bad if the questions are quite creative, and sufficiently entertaining. A friend of mine (she does theology) was set in her start-of-term exam the following:

"For as we all know, God made man in his own image. It'd be a sad lookout for Christians throughout the globe if God looked anything like you, Baldrick."
-Lord E. Blackadder

Discuss.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

and here's you arguing against the waste of education funding...

when you said they wrote 3000 words a week i assumed you meant that they had some academic substance. i'd imagine some people manage that on these forums...

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

What?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

i was implying that setting exams on baldrick's uglyness is a greater waste of funding than sending students out on the piss. at least the drunk ones have an excuse.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

that's nowt
when i were a lad we had to get up in mornin, do two 3 hour exams before breakfast, get sent down pit, study a random 2000 page text book written in ancient egyptian whilst workin a 14 hour shift and then submit a 50,000 word essay before we went to bed every day of t week.
And if we failed, we was shot. if we were lucky
kids these days don't know they're born...
aye.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I don't want references as most on-line resources are not good options for quoting.

Seeing as these are modern-day questions, recent articles on current events would be useful as a bit of background etc...

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

They do actually have to write stuff that is theologically sound. I think the reason for it is that in the vacation work they were set, they were told to read from a selection of books, and it was fairly non-specific. If you gave questions that weren't open to interpretation (e.g. 'Discuss the blah blah of the Pharisees in Mark chapter x verses y-z and relate it to role of the christian church in relation to blah blah in some random period in history') someone's bound to go 'shit, I studied John this vac'. People may well have ended up having read a load of stuff and out of the questions on the paper, what they knew wasn't relevant to any of them. In actual schools exams, they are a lot more specific, because what you have to read about is much more specific.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

this made me smile, so thanks for that.
i don't really want to hijack this thread any further tho. who knows, if it gets going i might learn something \o/

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I can tell you're lying. Because they don't make papyrus for textbooks, so the 2000 page book would have to be carved into stone. That would be way too heavy cos I know you're a weedy little bastard. So you must be lying.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

obligatory BBC link

our national institutions seem to support his story. ish.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

:rolleyes:
spent most of night before copyin carvin's onto paper...
don't tell me bout 'eavy, carryin 5 tonne of coal out pit every day.
had 7 kids to look after an all, not countin the ones i ad with me first wife, that were before the great plague of 74 of course.




EDIT I'm gonna stop there. I have a feeling Jennifer is going to try and drag this out until it's no longer funny any more :(

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Oh, yeah, milk it baby!



Milk it for all it's worth!

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

A Freudian slip?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Judge the worth of any money spent on education on the answers, not the questions.

Discuss.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

It seems like a fair question to me, although its phrased in a playful manner. It has obvious connections with (eg) the problem of evil, and the tendancy for Western religions to create gods that are esentially idealised projections of certain human characteristics (as compared to the impersonal 'mystical forces' you get in Eastern spiritualism for instance). You could write a good essay on Nietzsche in answer to that question, especially since it has an aesthetic dimension :cool:

Although yeah, if we're going to start labelling degrees as being worthless, theology will be one of the first.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Not if you want to 'reason with' and therefore control the masses. There are still a lot of Christians on this planet.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Well, I doubt that most 'Christians' know enough about the Bible or Christianity to engage in (or listen to) a serious debate on the subject. Look at the Da Vinci Code hysteria as an example of how clueless the average person is about the history of their religion. With the exception of a few hard-core types, I suspect that the only real exposure most 'Sunday believers' have had to the Bible is a few barely remembered highschool religion classes, along with several scattered passages from the New Testement which get read out during Mass.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

Question 3 looks like the intelligent choice.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

1) to what extent are the failings of Russia's recent quest for democracy attributable to the stunted development of (a) a Russian 'bourgeoisie' (as distinct from an 'intelligentsia') and (b) a Russian 'civil society'? And vo what extent are a well-developed 'bourgeoisie' and a well-developed 'civil society' prerequisites for democracy?

although its a simple question as it sets out the structure etc easily for you, its bloody boring and I wouldnt touch it with a barge pole.

2) Did the Yeltsin regime do more to impede than to promote the establishment of liberal democracy in post-Soviet Russia? And were there politically viable alternatives to the Yeltsin regime between 1992 and 1996?

I did something like this in an essay but it was more looking at Putin and Yeltsin. Its a good question because for the first part you can definatly write about both sides, because on the one hand he did promote the establishment of democracy (setting up Russia, non USSR, communism gone, yada yada yada) however on the other hand he didnt exactly help it (Kasbhulatov (my proffessor is his biographer, and was there at the time) Russian Parliament, Constitution, elections etc)

Once again the second part of the question you can argue yes or no but argue more for no, lack or real opposition as well some of it was locked up. Dodgy deals behind closed doors, loads of parties, tons and tons just not big paties ie alternatives. But you can pick your way through that.

3) to what extent is the Putin regime doing more to hinder than to promote liberal democracy in Russia?

You could write a bloody dissertation on this.

4) Why has the majority of Russia's population been plunged into poverty since end of the Soviet regime, what (if anything) can be done to allieviate this poverty in the near future, and how has such widespread impoverishment affected the process of democratisation?

boring.


I would do question 2 or 3, there is absolutely tons of literature on both Yeltsin and Putin and its fairly interesting stuff.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

very much so, in the essay i wrote on Putin he has done some argubably democratic reforms, like the courts etc and other things. I will try and fish out a few of my essays by friday and send them too you, thats if I can find my laptop ;/

On the note of writers and references, search for Richard Sakwa, hes written a fair few books on Putin as I said earlier hes my prof (he is one of the few academics who meets him every year or so along with a select few in western media.

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it would seem that the question to some extent predicates the answer, and therefore if you're judging by the answer you are, by neccessity, judging by the question.

as an example, take a-levels. last i heard universities were complaining that the distinction between A grade students wasn't enough, as the exams didn't test 'well' enough. surely this is an example of the question(s) making it difficult to judge the education?

that asside, would we have heard of einstein if his question in life had been about what colour trousers were best?

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

With the paragraphs in order:

1. That becomes less and less true with less and less specific questions, and even then, especially when dealing with a less problem-solving based subject like philosophy or theology, it's quite possible to do something utterly unexpected that transcends the question, whilst still having it as its heart.

2. It's say quite the opposite. The more specific and transparent the question, the easier it is to answer. With something like the above question, it's horrifically easy to tell apart the intelligent students who know their subject and the ones that either aren't intelligent or don't.

3. That's problem solving, not demonstrating aptitude for an arts subject. "What's 1+1 equal to, in the base 10 counting system?" has but one answer. "With regards to intertextuality, examine A Tale of Two Cities." has many, in essence the variety limited only by the candidates' aptitudes for the course.

In conclusion: I think that having a very narrow view of that question demonstrates more about you than it does about the question. Nod has given an example of how you could answer it, you have appeared to have just noticed that it's a Blackadder quote and assumed its worthless because of it.

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i've always found broad questions easier than specific ones

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

The other anwsers in this thread looked good and were from people who have read more than me about it. I am just chipping in with my personal experiences from living there. sorry it's a bit rushed.
I'd rather attribute it to the fact that russians are dishonest thieves bereft of any morals whatsoever.
Yes.
No.

The russians are clamouring for a strong leader, so they're getting what they're asking for.
1. Well, the alcohol prohibition of Gorbatchov made sure the mafia(I use this word in the widest sense possible) grew strong. When the all-governing state was dismantled so ridicously fast, they were the only powerstructure ready to take over.

2. Things will not change. Every single educated russian I spoke too had no long term hope.

3. On the bright side, people are actually campaigning though. I witnessed the Moscow elections when I was there, and there were commercials and stuff everywhere. Nobody seemed to give a flying **** though.

Re: Democracy In Russia...
 

I like 3) and 4) although they might not be the easiest questions for you to do. 3 enables you to take a really interesting look at the inner workings of putin's regime. A large amount of literature has been written on this topic and I'd definitely read some more alternative viewpoints on the recent changes in the russian state and both international opinion's and other nation-states' reaction to these changes.

4 means you can look at communism, the fall of communism in the USSR, the problems of converting to a capitalist economy from a communist one, possible solutions to these ones and the effect of economics on politics. I think I'd genuinely enjoy writing this essay.