Browsing by Subject "Russian"
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Item A bear in the mountains : Russian policy in the Caucasus(2012-12) Archbold, Kenneth Ora; Garza, Thomas J.; Moser, Robert GThe Caucasus region is an integral part of Russian history, politics, and culture, both in the arenas of internal and external policy. Throughout the centuries, Russia has spent much blood and treasure to maintain its influence in this vital region. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight the Russian government’s efforts to maintain political, economic, and cultural influence in the Caucasus and how those efforts led Russia into two Chechen wars and a brief but consequential armed conflict with Georgia. This thesis paper will briefly examine the history of Russian conquest in the Caucasus and how the region became so important to Russia, politically, culturally, and economically. The paper will also explore the effects that the fall of the Soviet Union had on relations between the Russian central government and the North Caucasus republics and how the conditions that the break up created led to the first Chechen War. The work will also examine the causes of the second Chechen War and the role of radical Islam in the conflict between the Russian federal government and rebels in the North Caucasus. This paper will also analyze the possible threats to Russian hegemony in the Caucasus, including radical Islam, terrorism, and a Georgian government that seems determined to exit Russia’s sphere of influence. The work will also analyze the 2008 Russo-Georgian War and how it impacted not just Russo-Georgian relations, but also how it helped define Russia’s relationship with the West and its role in world politics. Finally, the thesis will study Russia’s future prospects in the region, whether Russian hegemony will remain in the South Caucasus and what should be done to ensure peace and stability in the North Caucasus.Item Nikolai Baibakov : Soviet economic planning and its legacy in the Russian oil industry(2011-12) Kaufman, Jay Lawrence; Wynn, Charters, 1953-; Moser, RobertNikolai Baibakov was a key individual in the Soviet Union. His background as an oil engineer in the Baku region during the 1930s and his exploits as a deputy commissar for oil during the Second World War led to his appointment as the chief of the central economic planning organ of the USSR, Gosplan. In this post, he shaped the economy of his country in accordance with the political priorities of its leaders, often despite contradicting domestic economic realities. As a faithful communist, Baibakov’s advocacy of centralized planning in a command economy lasted his entire life, but it also cost him his job when Gorbache v started to steer the USSR in the direction of perestroika in 1985. In the aftermath of the break-up of the USSR and the subsequent privatization of its industries under Yeltsin, Baibakov remained a committed advocate of centralized planning, especially for the oil sector. His policies and ideological perspectives regarding oil as national security resource were vindicated under President Vladimir Putin at the beginning of the 21st century.Item Validity of self-ratings for determining language proficiency : evidence from Russian-English bilingual adults(2013-05) Blokh, Maria; Marquardt, Thomas P.Narrative measures derived from English and Russian tell and retell narrative language samples of 20 L1-Russian, L2-English bilingual adults were correlated with their overall, speaking and verbal proficiency self-ratings to verify the validity of the selfrating scale for both languages. In English, measures of fluency, productivity and grammaticality were moderately correlated with speaking proficiency self-ratings. Strength of correlations with tell versus retell narratives varied by category of narrative measure. For Russian, correlations were not significant due to ceiling effects in proficiency. The effects of modifications to narrative measures were considered, showing that correlations with temporal fluency and productivity increased as mazes and fillers were excluded, while correlations with grammaticality increased as article omission errors were excluded. Sources of variation in self-ratings and narrative measures are described, and recommendations are presented for an alternative narrative elicitation method.