140х215 (60х90/16), hard cover, 224 pp., 2008
ISBN 978-5-86793-578-8

The first Czechoslovak republic which had lasted for twenty years only, left us with an interesting cultural and political heritage. The arguments about it are still going on today. What was that interwar Czechoslovakia: a democratic “bastion” in the heart of Europe or a state based on national oppression? Was it an incarnation of the nations’ rights for self-determination, or was it a Versailles system’s offspring doomed to die? The interwar Czechoslovakia is presented in this book as an ideological “project”. It’s political history is viewed through the prism of the ideologies conflict: ethnic nationalism and the idea of a “political nation”, liberal humanism and totalitarian theories. As a result, the “case” of Czechoslovakia is seen as a “laboratory” for studying the processes happening in young states which have emerged on the ruins on an empire.

This book by Tatiana Cherednichenko, a renown essayist, musicologist, and cultural commentator, is based on her articles, originally published in the Private Stock magazine. The author uses music of all genres as a tool for the study of society. Cherednichenko also draws vivid portraits of well-known composers; among them are A. Volkonsky, N. Sidelnikov, B. Silvestrov, G. Ustvolskaya, A. Karamanov.

140х215 (60х90/16), hard cover, 192 pp., 2008
ISBN 978-5-86793-575-7

So what does it mean to be an Arab in France? Who are all those people: immigrants or equal members of the society? How do they identify themselves? What problems do they face while living in a European society? Should one be afraid of an “Arab” entering a train car? Should we suspect all the Maghreb young people of associations with the Islamic organizations? Who are all those young people who declared themselves during the street unrests in Autumn of 2005? Should they be referred to as the Arabs at all? Results of the research in the basis of this book represent an attempt to answer these and other questions associated with lives of the Maghreb society members in France. This book is an attempt to grasp all the aspects of life and problems which these people have to face: from citizenship and equal rights to terrorism and mixture of cultures.

How and why do family ties bind people to each other? Despite fundamental changes in social structures, cultural traditions and methods of child-rearing, the logic of kinship remains relevant to human society both in practice and in theory. What underlies this endless attachment to blood and kinship relations?
On the basis of extensive historical, sociological and culturological material, the articles in this book explain the appeal of kinship and family ties. The authors demonstrate how hostility towards normative models of family life in Russian history is accompanied by attempts to return to ‘original’ and ‘basic’ family traditions. The first volume studies the ideological context of the phenomenon of the family, family formation methods as well as the various tactics and strategies of family life. The second volume contains articles on a range of methods for bringing up of children, on the problems of immigrant families and on political technologies which exploit family rhetoric.

How and why do family ties bind people to each other? Despite fundamental changes in social structures, cultural traditions and methods of child-rearing, the logic of kinship remains relevant to human society both in practice and in theory. What underlies this endless attachment to blood and kinship relations?
On the basis of extensive historical, sociological and culturological material, the articles in this book explain the appeal of kinship and family ties. The authors demonstrate how hostility towards normative models of family life in Russian history is accompanied by attempts to return to ‘original’ and ‘basic’ family traditions. The first volume studies the ideological context of the phenomenon of the family, family formation methods as well as the various tactics and strategies of family life. The second volume contains articles on a range of methods for bringing up of children, on the problems of immigrant families and on political technologies which exploit family rhetoric.

This book offers a fresh and original perspective on modern Russia through the prism of geographic theory. How does the «everyday space», or the cultural landscape, work? What was the everyday space in the USSR, and what is happening to it now? In this collection of essays and articles the author makes an attempt to look beyond the routine, breaking through the ideological stereotypes and adding a new dimension to our understanding of changing Russia.

140х215 (60х90/16), hard cover, 152 pp., 2007
ISBN5-86793-503-5

Was J.R.R. Tolkien a humanist or a creator of the gothic asthetics that had forced the man out by means of inhumans and monsters? Had the gothic novels influenced the esthetic and moral conceptions of our compatriots which were reflected in such iconic novels as "The Night Watch" and "Tagansky Crossroads"? How does the histeric dymnesia of Russians which forgets the crimes of the Soviet past affect the political and social changes that are taking place in modern Russia? And finally, are gloomy features of the modern gothic community related to the fact that the objective time of science "goes out of fashion" and becomes replaced by "the temporality of nightmare" - the conception of the reversible, intermittent and subjective time? The book of historian and sociologist Dina Khapaeva is dedicated to this kind of issues.

This book is the first study of the folklore and ritual practices related to the send-off to the military service in the Russian countryside in the late 19th and the 20th century. Over this period the attitude towards the military service which determined the general tone of the send-off ritual, has changed from absolute rejection of the late 19th century to high prestige in the 1960-1980’s. The reasons of these changes are analyzed in this book. In this connection, the author looks into such issues as the collective identity structure and the perception of the state by the traditional society, the system of life cycle rituals and the construction of rituals.

The Experience of Sociography brings together, for the first time, a number of essays by well-known sociologist Alexei Levinson. Written in different years, these focus on a number of intriguing topics from the current president’s popularity and jokes about new Russians to smells and alcohol. Through these, Levinson explores a range of broader issues, such as the institutions of violence and governance; perceptions of, and changes in, the urban environment; the sociology of advertising and the market. Many of the essays have previously appeared in Levinson’s regular column of NZ magazine.

This collection of articles is devoted to a topic on which it is difficult to extricate theory from political partisanship. Malakhov discusses problems of racism and migration, national politics and ethnic identity, multiculturalism and nation-making. The theme that unites the articles is a polemic with an idea of ethnicity that ignores its historical, cultural and political bases.