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CEU Press books are distributed also in digital version. See the top 20 e-sales from 2005 till June 2008.

Bestsellers on two tracks. Five titles figure both among traditional and digital top 20: A Cardboard Castle, A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements, Russian Foreign Policy, Ascensions on High, and Ideologies and National Identities.

"A sharp, thoughtful, graciously written study, based on impressive research in the archives of the French and Italian parties, as well as East German records, for insights into Soviet actions. The book does not change the overall understanding of the positions and roles of the two parties, but it adds much rich detail and subtlety. Summing up: highly recommended". – Choice on Which Socialism, Whose Détente?

"The four case studies provide substantial grist for those interested in generalizations about successful state building. Furthermore, specialists should find the cross-country comparisons on the development of tax regimes interesting. Summing up: recommended." – Choice on State-Building

"Filled with new information and original ideas and offering intriguing incentives for further research, this well-edited volume is not only a remarkable edition to the literature on European eugenics but provides invaluable insights into the broader currents of intellectual life in central and southeast Europe.” – Slavic Review on Blood and Homeland

Both From Solidarity to Martial Law and Islam and Tolerance in Wider Europe are highly recommended by Choice.

In the past few years Carleton University, as well as the Universities of Kansas and Maryland have excelled in adopting CEU Press books for courses. Our most popular titles were Prague Tales, A Life Under Russian Serfdom and Between Past and Future.

"This is the book that I wish someone had given me the day I arrived in Prague" – Prague Post on From Good King Wenceslas to the Good Soldier Svejk





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Climate Dependence and Food Problems in Russia, 1900-1990
The Interaction of Climate and Agricultural Policy and Their Effect on Food Problems

Nikolai M. Dronin lectures at Moscow State University and is involved in a number of international projects concerning environmental problems in Russia. The current book evolved from research done jointly with Kassel University (Germany).

Edward G. Bellinger was senior lecturer at the University of Manchester (UK) and Director of the Pollution Research Unit until 1995 running a postgraduate course in environmental studies and a number of research projects on watershed and lake management. Founding member and head of the Department for Environmental Sciences & Policy at the Central European University, Budapest.

Between 1900 and 1990 there were several periods of grain and other food shortages in Russia and the former Soviet Union, some of which reached disaster proportions resulting in mass famine and death on an unprecedented scale.
New stocks of information not previously accessible as well as traditional official and other sources have been used to explore the extent to which policy and vagaries in climate conspired to affect agricultural yields. Were the leaders' (Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev) policies sound in theory but failed in practice because of unpredictable weather? How did the Soviet peasants react to these changes? What impact did Soviet agriculture have on the overall economy of the country? These are all questions that are taken into account.
The book is arranged in chapters representing different time periods. In each the policy of the central government is discussed followed by the climate vagaries during that period. Crop yields are then analyzed in the light of policy and climate.


"The book's most important contribution is its thorough and systematic overview of climatic changes, year by year, and their impact on the performance of Russian and Soviet agriculture.
Given the profound impact of food supply problems at so many critical junctures in Russian and Soviet history, this thorough and rigorous survey deserves to be welcomed by all historians of Russia and the Soviet Union." - American Historical Review

"The "intrusion" of two specialists in environmental policies into historical studies of Russia should only be welcomed.
Commonly for each chapter, the section on "weather variations and agricultural production," is the most interesting and contains the most new information. In these sections the authors fully exploit their expertise, usually lacking among humanist historians, and uncover technical sources (typically reports published by the Hydrometeorological Service) which are almost destined to be ignored by historians. The authors carefully try to identify to what extent each case of agricultural and food crisis in Soviet history was caused by climatic or political reasons." - The Russian Review

Contents

Preface; Chapter 1 Climate and agriculture in Russia Chapter 2 Availability and reliability of statistical data for Russia Chapter 3 Pre revolutionary period (1900-16) Chapter 4 Post revolutionary period (1917-28) Chapter 5 Collectivization of the Soviet agriculture (1929-40) Chapter 6 Postwar recovery (1945-53) Chapter 7 Virgin lands campaign (1954-64) Chapter 8 Period of intensification of the Soviet agriculture (1965-75) Chapter 9 Period of stagnation of the Soviet agriculture (1976-90) Conclusion

2005
383 pages
ISBN 978-963-7326-10-3 cloth $49.95 / €42.95 / £31.95
ISBN 978-963-7326-09-7 paperback $24.95 / €19.95 / £13.95

 

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