REVIEWS 55I co-operation between the US and Russia in the War on Terror;Washington rethinking its unilateralistapproach to security issues can provide the only basisforfutureprogress. In the author'sopinion, Russiafaced the bruntof internationalterrorismin the North Caucasusbefore the US was compelled to takeseriouslythe nature of the global threat posed by such militant groups and their decentralized networksin disparate geographical locations. Russia's terroristproblem has been rooted in Chechnya, and though Primakov does not examine the contribution of the overwhelming use of force by Russian armed forces in Chechnya since I994, he readily admits that mistakes have been made. Nonetheless, he is not a proponent of finding a negotiated settlement to Chechen ambitions to secure independence. This he justifies by detailed reference to Chechen terrorism. Having met with those responsible for the Nord-Ost theatresiege in Moscow in October 2002 as the situationunfolded, he concludes that their fanaticism cannot be reasoned with, offering only bleak hope that Russian authorities will foster talks with more moderate Chechen leaders. However, Primakovwrote before the terroristattackon the school in Beslan, North Ossetia in September 2004, which has provoked a security response from Moscow that makes the prospect of talks even less likely. Primakov's book will prove essential reading to academics and political plannersalike,seekingto understandfromwithin the natureof contemporary Russian perspectives on the radically altered international security environment and especially to gain insight into Russia's views on terrorismin the twenty-firstcentury. University ofKent atCanterbugy ROGER N. McDERMOTT Slater,WendyandWilson,Andrew(eds). 7heLegacy oftheSoviet Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2004. xii + 275 pp. Tables. Notes. Index. ?5?.??. THIS is an excellent collection of essays seeking to outline the effects of the Soviet legacy ten years afterthe fall of the Soviet Union. The essaysgenerally are thoughtful,based on deep familiaritywith those aspectsof Soviet/Russian life with which each essay is concerned, and thought-provoking. In the Introduction, Sheila Fitzpatricklooks over the decade since I99I, arguing that the end of the Soviet Union means that important new perspectivesare brought to bear on both particularaspects of the Soviet experience and that experience as a whole, and that this has importantimplicationsfor Russians' understandingof both theircontemporarysituationand how they got therein the first place. Four essays look at issues of national identity. Vera Tolz exploresthe dynamicsof the differencebetween conceiving Russiaasa nationstate and as a multi-national state, and the implications this has for the conception of Russia's future. This is nicely complemented by Andrew Wilson's discussion of the differentviews of the nature of Eastern Slavdom held in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.Dov Lynch explores the role played by de facto states in generating conflict in the post-Soviet space, focusing on 552 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Pridnestriaand Abkhazia, but surprisingly not Chechnya. Bhavna Dave explains how the Nazarbaev government has been able to manage ethnic relations in Kazakhstan. There are three essays on economic matters. Janine R. Wedel summarizes her arguments about the corruptway in which US aid has been deliveredinto Russiaand the implications this has had, while Alena Ledeneva looks at the survival in changed form of many of those informalpracticesthat had been so centralto citizens' survivalduringthe Soviet period. Philip Hanson analysesthe impact of the administrativeregionson economic performance,andfindsthatdespite the close linksbetween regional politicians and local businessmen, economic difficultiesare not a resultof the politico-administrativestructure.There are five essays on politics, law and foreign policy. W. E. Butler charts the substantialchanges that therehave been in the legal sphere,althoughthishas not led to a strengthening of civil society, while Martin Dewhirst focuses mainly on perestroika-eraGlavlit and its post-Soviet descendant. Vladimir Gel'man surveysthe literatureon politics in the regions, and Peter Duncan analyses the foreign policies of many of the Soviet successor states. Finally, Wendy Slater uses the fiftieth anniversary of Stalin's death to review the ambiguous image he currently has among Russian citizens and political leaders. Although the principalfocus of the book is upon Soviet legacies, there is no attempt to spell out what is meant by a legacy, nor to give a weighting to the importanceof differenttypesoflegaciesinthepost-Sovietperiod.Accordingly, a range of different factors form the focus of the individual essays: formal institutions, informal patterns of action, memories and...