Ware, Robert Bruce (ed.). The Fire Below: How the Caucasus Shaped Russia (review)

Abstract

SEER, 92, 4, OCTOBER 2014 788 less. These chapters are also enlivened by snippets from memoirs, letters of complaints, letters to the editor and trade journals. The analysis, overall, suffers from a few tendencies. Though Chernyshova seekstorevealthehabitsandattitudesoftheSovietconsumer,sheofteneschews a close reading of texts, leaving the reader to tease out deeper meanings. She notes, for example, that in the 1970s some workplaces and universities banned women from wearing trousers, but does not venture beyond the surface to explore such policies or their gender implications. Likewise, the intriguing characterization of the peculiarities of Soviet aesthetics as ‘an unmonitored, eclectic, often flashy and socially emulative medley of foreign things combined with Soviet-made items’ (p. 161) is not satisfactorily explored in the text. Also, most chapters first rehearse the historiography of the Stalinist era and Khrushchev years, delineating the continuities and departures in rhetoric and policies from the Brezhnev decades. This scheme, which, incidentally, ignores most of the literature on consumer culture in the tsarist and NEP eras, reminds readers that Brezhnev and his cohort finally delivered on the promises of their predecessors; however, it also sets up each chapter to confirm or debunk previous findings, rather than to take a new direction. Finally, an overlap and repetition of information and evidence occurs throughout the book. Yet Chernyshova admirably synthesizes various strands of political, economic, social and cultural trends to boldly reinterpret ‘developed socialism’ as ‘developed consumerism’. Her clear demonstration of the link between state policiesandconsumerbehavioursandofparallelswithdevelopmentsinEastern and Western Europe, and the United States provides a fresh perspective on the importance of material goods in the state’s failure to reform Communism. The book is well-researched and makes a significant contribution to the growing field of studies on Soviet consumer culture and the Brezhnev years, and is enthusiastically recommended. Department of History Marjorie L. Hilton Murray State University Ware, Robert Bruce (ed.). The Fire Below: How the Caucasus Shaped Russia. Bloomsbury, New York and London, 2013. xii + 337 pp. Notes. Tables. Bibliography. Index. Appendix. £23.99 (paperback). The Caucausus has played a major role in Russian political history over the past twenty-five years. This volume, put together by Robert Bruce Ware, a leading specialist on Dagestan and the North Caucasus, contributes new perspectives. It deals with both the North and South Caucasus, though the latter is represented almost exclusively by Georgia. REVIEWS 789 The best chapters describe in some detail the complexities of the region and Russia’s often-incoherent attempts to deal with the most pressing problems. Walter Richmond writes on preparations for the Sochi Olympics and finds that federal and local organizers rode roughshod over residents’ rights, environmental objections and the sensitivities of ethnic minorities to such an extent that it set new precedents for government policy in other regions. Richard Sakwa’s chapter on Chechnya recapitulates an argument he has made elsewhere, that Russia constitutes a ‘dual state’ of constitutional and informal mechanisms and that Chechnya under Ramzan Kadyrov challenges the model by pursuing policies that are clearly unconstitutional and authoritarian. A wellsourced chapter by military analysts Robert Schaefer and Andrei Doohovskoy assesses the impact of the Chechen wars on the Russian military. Problems with force mobility and command and control led to reforms that streamlined the structure of the Russian army. Andrew Foxall looks at Stavropol´ krai, the Russian-majority region that adjoins the North Caucasus and which hosts the headquarters for the North Caucasus Federal District in Pyatigorsk. Positioned on the frontline, Stavropol´ experienced earlier than most Russian regions the problems of kavkazofobiya (Russian antipathy toward peoples from the Caucausus who move to their regions), yet the krai benefits from serving as a regional transport and energy hub, as well as a financial centre. Most controversial, and to this reader most misleading, is Patrick Armstrong’s chapter on the impact of Georgian events on Russia. He contends that ‘memes’ — widely accepted conclusions based on unexamined premises and weak evidence — have dominated Western discourse about Russia’s relations with its neighbours. Armstrong rejects the view that Russia is seeking to re-establish control over the new states on its periphery. Georgia’s problems with breakaway territories are, in his view, self-inflicted, the result of national chauvinism. A...