PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
Latest editorial
The changing state of Russia
Charles Buxton gives fresh insights into complex social and political developments before and after the Soviet collapse, says Joe Gill
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF
MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
Russia and Development: Capitalism, Civil Society and the State by Charles Buxton (Zed Books, £24.99)
In this wide-ranging book, Charles Buxton brings a fresh eye to the historical analysis of Russian development during the Soviet and post-Soviet period. Rather than take a simplistic pro- or anti-Soviet position, he attempts to place more recent developments in Russia and Central Asia in a historical context by examining the late tsarist and Bolshevik periods and comparing these to developments since perestroika and the Soviet collapse.
It is not strictly speaking a Marxist analysis. But it does allow for the complex factors of local, national, class and international forces at work —which are impacting on Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union.
Similar stories
ALEX HALL is fascinated by a lucid and historically convincing account of how rent has dominated capitalist economies from feudalism to modernity
STEVE ANDREW is intrigued by a timely and well-researched book that demonstrates the conflicted history of the central Asian country
BRENT CUTLER is intrigued by the imperialist, supremacist and contradictory history of a word that is used all too easily
Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY