• A century of state murder?: death and policy in twentieth century Russia

      Haynes, Michael J.; Hasan, Rumy (London: Pluto Press, 2003)
      Russia has one of the lowest rates of adult life expectancy in the world. Average life expectancy for a man in America is 74; in Russia, it is just 59. Birth rates and population levels have also plummeted. These excess levels of mortality affect all countries that formed the former Soviet bloc. Running into many millions, they raise obvious comparisons with the earlier period of forced transition under Stalin. This book seeks to put the recent history of the transition into a longer term perspective by identifying, explaining and comparing the pattern of change in Russia in the last century. It offers a sharp challenge to the conventional wisdom and benign interpretations offered in the west of what has happened since 1991. Through a careful survey of the available primary and secondary sources, Mike Haynes and Rumy Husan have produced the first and most complete and accurate account of Russian demographic crisis from the Revolution to the present. (Pluto Press)
    • Labour, Exploitation and Capitalism in Russia before and after 1991.

      Haynes, Michael J. (Brill Academic Publications, 2008)
      This article explores the relevance of the idea of state capitalism in Russian development. It situates the idea within the framework of capitalist development which it argues is marked by global inequalities, power imbalances and economic and military competition. The Russian Revolution of October 1917 was an attempt to overthrow this system but its failure led to a highly intense form of state capitalism which lasted until 1991. The underlying continuities in the different regimes in Russia are then analysed in terms of the process of working class exploitation.
    • Russia: Class and Power, 1917-2000

      Haynes, Michael J. (London: Bookmarks, 2002)
      The spectre of Stalinism continues to haunt radicals across the world. If revolutions inevitably lead to tyranny, how can the anti-capitalist movement develop a vision for a better world. This timely book reexamines the rise and fall of the Russian revolution, as well as the destructive consequences of market capitalism since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the context of a buoyant anti-capitalist movement. (Amazon)
    • ‘The ‘Electrification of Art’: Boris Arvatov’s Programme for Communist Life

      Penzin, Alexei; Roberts, John. Penzin, Alexei.; Shushan Avagyan (Pluto Press, 2017-11-15)
    • Zwischen Integration und Ausgrenzung: Jüdische Zuwanderer aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion und Deutschland

      Weiss, Karin (Campus Verlag, 2002)
      This article surveys a transformation that affected both East and West Germany, albeit not to the same extent: the migration and settlement of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. Originally agreed by the last GDR People's Chamber in 1990, and limited to a maximum of 2,000 individuals, German legislation was amended in 1991 and removed the numerical restrictions. A decade later, Jewish migration into Germany had reached nearly 100,000. While the German government celebrated the restoration of Jewish communities and Jewish life after the devastation inflicted by the Holocaust, the scope and composition of Jewish migration posed major problems for communities charged with integrating newcomers. In West Germany, existing communities more than doubled in size, often leaving Russian Jews in a majority. In East Germany, where the number of Jewish community members had dwindled to below 500 by 1990, the influx and the policy of dispersion across the region meant that new Russian-only communities were found in Potsdam, Schwerin and elsewhere. What would seem to be revitalisation amounted in reality to massive financial burdens on existing communities and divisive cultural pressures. Most of the newcomers are without earned income, employment and look to organisations for support. These, in turn, cannot collect membership dues from impoverished newcomers. Few Russian Jews have any knowledge of the German language and continue to communicate in Russian; few have any knowledge of Jewish religious or cultural traditions, since these were criminalised in the Soviet Union. Moreover, many of the newcomers are non-Jewish family members, or do not have a Jewish mother and are, therefore, not deemed to be Jewish by the religious authorities and the community leadership. In East Germany, the 4,000 or so Jewish newcomers are too few in number to restore Jewish life as a visible and vibrant social or cultural force.