Former Soviet Republics & Siberia in The Books Store

The Tale of Bygone Years (Povest' vremennykh let) is the most important source for the history of early Rus'. Full of stories of grand princes and saints, monks, and knightly retinues, this chronicle compilation has been the bedrock of modern interpretations of the history, ethos, and religious traditions of Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians alike. It also has been a source of controversy, with competing redactions and interpretations of the Old East Slavic language in which it was written. This massive undertaking provides scholars and general readers with the first fully legible text that includes all of the known redactions of the Povest'. The text consists of an intercollation of the five oldest redactions, three more modern redactions, three later interpolations, and Ostrowski's own final interpretation. The intercollated texts are nested line-by-line. This three-part set will be of fundamental importance to Slavic philologists and historians of early Rus'.

Regional diversity such as Ukraine's often embodies potential for friction and conflict, in particular when it involves territorialized ethnicity and divergent historical experiences. Political elites interested in stability and conflict prevention must find ways either to accommodate or control this diversity. In the early to mid-1990s, the Western media, policymakers, and academics alike warned that Crimea was a potential center of unrest in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's dissolution. However, large-scale conflict in Crimea did not materialize, and Kyiv has managed to integrate the peninsula into the new Ukrainian polity. This book explores the factors that led to the largely peaceful transition and places the situation in the larger context of conflict-prevention studies, explaining this critical case in which conflict did not erupt despite a structural predisposition to ethnic, regional, and even international enmity.