Ethnic Russian Minority in Estonia

The article examines the position of Russians in Estonia and their relation with ethnic Estonians. The author analyzes models of the society integration introduced by Tallinn after 1991. The results raise questions regarding language education in Estonia, the proficiency level of Estonian is getting widely known by Russians, but on the other hand, there is still a significant part of the population that cannot communicate in Estonian. Those who have a good command of Estonian tend to be better integrated and to coexist with both Estonians and Russians. Russians living in Estonia are supposed to be equally involved in social and political life of the state. The potential of all residents has to be effectively and considerably used, especially when the number of population is decreasing. The position of Russians in Estonia is a major domestic and bilateral issue in the relations with the Russian Federation

Russian Attitudes Toward the West

In the late 1980s, the vast majority of Russians supported pro-Western economic and political transformation. Although transition to market and democracy has eventually delivered economic benefits, most Russians are now skeptical about Western economic and political values. In this article we use polls and microeconomic data to understand what determines Russians’ attitudes to the US, the West, private property, market, democracy, etc. The negative attitudes to the Western values are strikingly uniform across economic and social strata – and across time. The negative sentiment towards the West has increased over the last four years, but the change is not substantial. While the oldest and the youngest Russians are more anti-Western than those in their 30s and 40s, all age cohorts are quite negative. On a more positive note, while most Russians do dislike the West, many of them do practice Western pragmatism in their everyday economic lives.

Macro-reasoning and cognitive gaps: understanding post-Soviet Russians’ communication styles.

Russians and Westerners access, process and communicate information in different ways. Whilst Westerners favour detailed analysis of subject matter, Russians tend to focus on certain components that are, in their view, significant. This disparity makes it difficult to achieve constructive dialogues between Western and Russian stakeholders contributing to cross-cultural communication problems. The author claims that the difference in the ways Russians and Westerners negotiate information is a significant cultural difference between Russia and West rather than an irritating (and in principle amenable) lack of analytical skills on the Russian partners’ part. Understanding the reasons behind the Russian-specific approaches to dealing with information would be a positive step towards a more effective cross-cultural communication, important in business situations and essential in diplomacy

The Ethnic 'Other' in Ukrainian History Textbooks: The Case of Russia and the Russians

This paper examines portrayals of Russia and the Russians in two generations of Ukrainian history textbooks. It observes that the textbooks are highly condemning of Ukraine's main ethnic other in the guise of foreign ruler: the tsarist authorities and the Soviet regime are always attributed dubious and malicious intentions even if there is appreciation for some of their policies. By contrast, the books, certainly those of the second generation, refrain from presenting highly biased accounts of the ethnic other as a national group (i.e. Russians). Instances where negative judgements do fall onto Russians are counterbalanced by excerpts criticizing ethnic Ukrainians or highlighting conflicting interests within the Ukrainian ethnic group. The negative appraisal of the ethnic other as foreign ruler is clearly instrumental for the nation-building project as it sustains a discourse legitimating the existence of Ukraine as independent state. However, recent trends in history education, the paper concludes, suggest that the importance of nurturing patriotism as a national policy objective is diminishing

Russians

An account of the history of Sydney's Russian community

Politics and the media in postcommunist Russia

The evidence of a nationally representative survey conducted in April 2001 suggests that television is the medium of choice for most Russians. At least 92 per cent watch at least several times a week, with state channels more popular than those in commercial ownership. The media enjoy a high level of trust, and there is widespread agreement that they should adopt a stabilising role in society rather than simply report developments. Television is the main source of information when Russians make their electoral choices; there are accordingly considerable implications in the extent to which pro-Kremlin candidates and parties enjoy the support of the state media, which in turn are the favourite viewing of the voters that support them

Russians

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Once, I found out that if you save an entire semester\u27s worth of work for the last day. you\u27ll have to stay up till 4 A.M. to finish it all. In that moment you will realize something else, that there really is a 4 A.M. I thought that it had been made up until that day. I thought that the Russians made that up to make America feel lazy. It worked, too. I felt lazy because I was never up at 4 A.M. to do any work. Then, when I turned fifteen and I started learning about Russians in history class, I realized they were sneaky enough to invent a 4 A.M. I realized that they do things like that all the time, making up things to make Americans feel lazy and bad about themselves. I was so irritated with them about the whole 4 A.M. thing that I didn\u27t speak to a Russian for years

Russians Back Protests, Political Freedoms and Putin, Too

Presents survey findings about Russians' reaction to the December 2011 parliamentary and March 2012 presidential elections and subsequent protests, attitudes toward democracy, and views of leaders, nationalism, and Russia?s global image

The Russian-Ukrainian Earnings Divide

Ethnic differences are often considered to be powerful sources of diverse economic behavior. In this paper, we investigate whether and how ethnicity affects Ukrainian labor market outcomes. Using micro data from the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (ULMS) and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of earnings, we find a persistent and rising labor market divide between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians throughout Ukraine's transition era. We establish that language rather than nationality is the key factor behind this ethnic premium favoring Russians. Our findings further document that this premium is larger among males than among females.Ethnicity, earnings differences, discrimination, transitional labor markets, ethnic premium