Is the shaman indeed risen in post-Soviet Siberia?

The Way of the Shaman and the Revival of Spiritual Healing in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Despite many years of Soviet rule in Central Asia, traditional medical beliefs and practices were not eradicated and their revival has been noticeable in the independent republics of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Religious and magical healing, including shamanism, are important parts of this renewed tradition. This article, based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and its vici...

Religious Culture: Faith in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

Nuclear Insecurity in the Post-soviet States

. Dr. William C. Potter is the Director of the Program for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. This essay is his prepared testimony submitted to the Subcommittee on International Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 27, 1994. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and ...

New Realities: Libraries in Post-Soviet Russia

The transition away from communism toward a more democratic society and the move to a market economy had profound effects on Russian libraries. Using the main public library in Bryansk, the Bryansk Region Scientific Library, as a case study, this article examines the changes in library service, including information access and the opening of previously closed collections, funding issues, the li...

Migration and Restructuring in Post-Soviet Russia

W hen Russia became independent in 1992, it inherited from the Soviet Union a spatial distribution of its population that was incompatible with its emerging market economy. Internally the largest migration stream has been out of the overpopulated Russian north and Far East toward central Russia. At other geographic scales, as a result of decades of Soviet labor policy, there were numerous citie...