Political Changes in Russia  1990-1996 Institute of International Politics and Economics,  Belgrade, 2000, pp. 189 Dr. Yelitsa Kuryak, a leading Yugoslav expert in Russian and Post-Soviet affairs, in her recent study deals with profound political changes in Russia during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The book begins with the analysis of the erosion of the so-called "real socialism" — the term used by Soviet ideologists to label the political system in their country — and continues with the basic elements that contributed the emergence of a multy-party system in post-Soviet Russia. Having completed this basic historical analysis, the author deals with main political issues of contemporary Russia: parliamentarism, political parties and their influence on Russian society, and national problems with emphasis on the relationship between Russia and the former Soviet republics.

The importance of this book is conditioned by a certain paradox in Yugoslav and Serbian studies of Soviet and Russian affairs: although Yugoslav public opinion is generally very interested in Russian affairs, and especially during the Yugoslav crisis both government and opposition devoted much attention to the real or possible role of Russia in solving Yugoslav problems, one could easily detect a lack of thorough analysis of internal Russian affairs in studies done by Yugoslav experts. Russian policy has been often misunderstood by politicians, researchers and journalists because they failed to analyze deep internal roots of Russian international behaviour. It is understandible that the Yugoslav public opinion is primarily interested in Russian foreign policy, and particularly in Russia’s position towards Yugoslavia and Yugoslav crisis. Furthermore, Yugoslav researchers often fail to track down the relationship between the internal situation and foreign policy decisions of the Russian leadership. In contemporary Russia, foreign policy is more conditioned by internal correlation of political forces than probably ever before in Russian history. The driving force behind Russia’s foreign policy is a necessity to create favorable environment for internal reforms. The internal situation in Russia, particularly in the economic and social fields, prevents Russia to aspire to the role of a super-power in the sense that the Soviet Union played and this situation requires a long period of concentration upon solutions for internal problems. On the other hand, there is continuous temptation to explain internal difficulties with changed and diminished international status of Russia as a world power. No doubt, Moscow has done very much to change the former concept and style of the Soviet foreign policy that was founded on ideological and expansionist premises. Sometimes greater significance is attributed to the fact that Russia is the military-strategic heir to the Soviet Union, than to the fact that contemporary Russia made a political and ideological brake with the USSR. All this only testifies the difficulties of constructing a democratic society in Russia and a new foreign policy based on profound internal changes.

Although the study by Yelitsa Kuryak does not deal directly with the Russian foreign policy or with the Yugoslav crisis, it makes a break in the Yugoslav politology in explaining the deeper social and political causes of Russian conduct. The author argues that contemporary Russia is in the process of transition between traditional Russian forms of governance and historically more successful and efficient forms of conducting political and social affairs that exist in the West. The author underlines the fact that the Russian society has,  regardless of all the difficult consequences of the historical move from one social form into another, endorsed a step out into the future. In her opinion, there are several indicators which can confirm this point. The first indicator is the introduction of the principle of division of power, although this division is acceptable to average Russian citizen in a specific form of a personalized system. The second indicator that should be considered as a key component of the Russian version of system-transformation is the introduction of political pluralism and multy-party system. The multy-party parliamentarism, as a form of societal democratization, has been fully realized in Russia at least from a formal and legal point of view, although in practice it could be argued that with some exceptions in Russia there are still no political parties in the traditional sense.

Finally, the author devotes much attention to the specific feature of the contemporary Russian political system, and it is personification of governance and a domination of a president. The importance of Presidency was further confirmed by the recent election of Vladimir Putin. At the same time, Presidency could be both a factor of national integrity and a factor that limits democratic processes of decision-making. The author concludes that the level of democratization of the Russian society,  will determine the future of a nearly absolutistic system of presidential governance.

"Political changes in Russia 1990-1996" contains a "catalogue" of multy-party system in Russia, with explanation of emergence, development and political orientation of all important parties in Russia, particularly emphasizing their role in election process and their role in the Parliament. Dr Kurjak also gives a chronology, background and prospects of the "national question" in Russia and on the territory of the former Soviet Union (Baltic States, Ukraine, Transdniestria, Caucasus and Central Asia). The concluding part of this chapter, "Dilemmas of national policy in Russia", explains the changes and contradictions facing current Russian policy towards nationalities and former Soviet republics in comparison with the Soviet conception of "Soviet people". The concept of civil society in Russia is still far from being realized, but the nation state idea is not a solution in the given multy-national character of today's Russia.

One of the most important conclusions that could be driven from the study written by Yelitsa Kuryak is that all changes in Russia — especially the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the erosion of the Soviet political and economic system — were caused by internal contradictions of the system and were historically inevitable. This is in contrariety to the usual interpretation by the Yugoslav official propaganda that attributes all these processes to "conspiracy", "treason" of the Soviet and Russian statesmen etc. Radical changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are not the result of a political "game", or of intelligence outwitting or failures of any politician - in the first place they are  a result of the historical defeat of a political system that had reached its objective limits. The book written by Yelitsa Kuryak, provides a thorough analysis of political changes in Russia, and it contributes to a much needed, realistic picture of the changes in contemporary world that result from profound internal processes and transformations in many countries (Russia being the most important among them) and not from secret and clandestine calculations and conspiracy. What Yugoslav public opinion needs is a realistic and rational approach and interpretation of relations in a modern world, without creating an atmosphere of threat and siege by official propaganda. The analysis of Russian society by Yelitsa Kuryak makes an important contribution to such kind of the political education of the Yugoslav public.

 Vladimir Vereš        

Izvodi iz recenzija:

Knjige o Rusiji su uvek aktuelne i dobrodošle... U našoj sredini stručnjaka za Rusiju, zvanih i nezvanih, ima na svakom uglu. Ta činjenica potvrđuje bliskost i povezanost Srba i Rusa, ali, njihovo "poznavanje" Rusije se svodi na neke opštepoznate istorijske istine o rusko-srpskim odnosima, kao i na emotivno-politizovana ushićivanja ili razočarenja njihovim rukovodiocima. U ovoj knjizi je upravo reč o utemeljenoj analizi onoga što se zbivalo i zbiva u Rusiji u poslednjoj deceniji XX veka... Uporišne tačke za ocenu kompetentnosti autora mogu se naci u sledećim okolnostima: dr Jelica Kurjak je već nekoliko decenija vodeći naučni istraživač i saradnik za pitanja Rusije u prestižnom Institutu za međunarodnu politiku i privredu u Beogradu; dr Jelica Kurjak je svojim analitičkim tekstovima ušla u najuži krug naših stručnjaka za savremenu rusku unutrašnju i spoljnu politiku; ovaj rad je naučno verifikovan od istaknutih stručnjaka Pravnog fakulteta u Beogradu i Instituta za međunarodnu politiku i privredu...

 Prof. dr Ranko Petković         

Autor je pokazala visok stepen naučnog umeća u postavljanju problema, u prikupljanju i izlaganju empirijske građe, u analiziranju pojava, događaja i zbivanja, u izvlačenju bitnih elemenata iz ukupnih procesa koji su bili predmet njenog istraživanja i davanju teorijsko-sintetičkih zaključaka. Rezultati do kojih je došla u ovom radu predstavljaju značajan doprinos naučnim saznanjima o savremenim procesima u Rusiji, i u širem kontekstu o ukupnoj pojavi tzv. tranzicije u postsocijalističkim zemljama uopšte.

Prof. dr Brana Marković        

Studija dr Jelice Kurjak po mnogo čemu je pionirsko delo ove vrste u jugoslovenskoj politkologiji koja ne samo po svom sadržaju nego i po metodologiji predstavlja prvi sveobuhvatni pokušaj istraživanja političkih procesa u Rusiji u poslednjim godinama Sovjetskog Saveza i prvim godinama postojanja nove ruske države... Značajno je primetiti da autor nije podlegao zahtevima političkog oportuniteta zadržavajući istraživačku distancu prema svim političkim fenomenima, pokretima i procesima na savremenoj ruskoj političkoj sceni, dolazeći do zaključaka koji se u mnogim slučajevima razlikuju od preovlađujućih ocena i mišljenja o Rusiji u našoj sredini.

Prof. dr Predrag Simić