Notes on sources of Russia Statistics

"The main objective of the Federal State Statistics Service is to meet the requirements of bodies of state authority and administration, media, general public, scientific community, commercial and international organisations for diverse, objective and exhaustive information. The system of state statistics covers district, regional and federal levels, as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg."

In Amnesty International published a report, EUR 46/022/2006, which detailed the alarming regularity of racist attacks and killings of foreigners and ethnic minorities, and the disturbing increase in their number. While there has been an increase in prosecutions recognizing racial hatred, the authorities are still not doing enough to convincingly challenge racist and xenophobic ideas and ideologies. This update details some of the most recent developments and reiterates Amnesty International's key recommendations for the Russian authorities in relation to racist attacks.

Lists the publications of a major anti-fascist organization in Russia.

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    Peter Gatrell's novel, Russia's First World War, provides a detailed account of how Russia became inolved in World War I, its alliances during the conflict, and the psychological ramifications of such a historical atrocity. However, what separates Gatrell's novel from the others is that he approaches this topic from the perspective of the economic situation in Russia. He explains the ways in which the war had a profound economic impact on the country, and how this lead to inevitable revolution. Gatrell begins his novel by describing Russia's entrance into the war. Although many contibuting factors initiated the first world war, he claims that there was one in particular that lit the fire; the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on June 28th, 1914. The assassin was later discovered to have been a member of the Serbian terrorist regime, the Black Hand. In response to this, Austro-Hungary immediately declared war on Serbia. Russia reluctantly mobilized the nation due to a long-standing alliance with Serbia. This process took roughly six weeks, and by the middle of September, 1914, Russia was fully engaged in warfare on the side of Serbia, and against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The rest of the countries joined the war in a similar fashion, by fulfilling alliances or treaties with nations already involved in the conflict. But Peter Gatrell focuses on the war in the context of the economic hardships that ravaged Russia during this period. He writes, "The buden of overseas debt that Russia had accumulated by 1917 would inevitably saddle any post-war regime with enormous balance of paymetns difficulties."(Russia's First World War, pg. 254). To exacerbate the problem, no country was willing to write a blank check for the Russians in order to pull them out of debt. In other words, Russia's extraordinary expenditures during World War I forced them to lay a heavy tax burden on the citizens, which in turn stimulated the call for a revolution. Civil War broke out, and the new rulers of Russia promised a more conscious economic policy in the future, and the empowerment of the Russian masses. Russians unquestioningly placed their faith in the Communistis. Gatrell's economic explanation for the first world war and revolution helps to illuminate much of the social commentary in Doctor Zhivago. Throughout the film, David Lean subtly hints at the poverty that plagued Russia during this time of strife. As Lara walks to the Christmas party, she is surrounded by street beggars, peasants, and drunkards. Similarly, when Zhivago travels across the Urals by train, he does so in a carriage fillled with homeless vagabonds. Furthermore, when Zhivago returns to his home after directing the veteran hospital for a few years, he finds several impoverished families living in it. Without doubt, Lean does attempt to portray an accurate respresentation of the socio-economic crisis that plagued Russia during and after the war. But its presence in the film is subtle. If the viewer is uninformed of this historical context, David Lean's social commentary is lost upon him.

Freakishly cheap "quasi-legal" mp3 downloading from Russia.

Ikiru begs the question, why is it so hard and outrageous for someone like Watanabe to do something beyond his bureaucratic ‘reach’?  Many of Watanabe’s coworkers, at his wake, refuse to give him credit for building the park, because it was not in his jurisdiction.  The questions raised by the functioning of the bureaucracy in Ikiru caused me to add Jacoby’s book to my bibliography, in order to get a better understanding of the workings of bureaucracy.  Jacoby often quotes the famous German theorist Max Weber.  Weber’s philosophical musings provide another element to the role of bureaucratization and its relevance to Ikiru, for instance, Weber’s idea that unchecked bureaucratization would “[splinter] the soul”  provides an understanding of Watanabe not offered by the other books.  I hate to reference Harry Potter, but it is a if Watanabe’s soul was splintered and put into horcruxes and only by accessing these horcruxes, can he access the parts of his soul (memories) that he put away.  For those who do not know, horcruxes are objects that a (evil) person can store his or her divided soul in.  The photograph of his deceased wife and his son’s baseball bat both allow Watanabe to access memories he could not access on his own, as if they were horcruxes.  In the beginning of the film, Watanabe is not cognizant of his splintered soul (which is caused by years of bureaucratization), so the document to Increase Efficiency he finds in his desk does not bring back any memories (he uses it to clean his pen), but as soon as he realizes that his soul is splintered (after he finds out that he has cancer), objects start to bring back forgotten parts of his soul.
    The book also has relevance to the film in its analysis of the immutability of the bureaucratic system, Jacoby writes, “the attempt on the part of democratic movements to break out of this bureaucratic closed sphere always ends by leading back into it;”  evidence of this comes from both the women who are unable to make any progress in fixing the cesspool in their neighborhood and Kimura, who rises in an attempt to follow Watanabe’s example, but ends up right back at his desk where he started.
    A possible explanation for the two-part structure of the films if that, as a bureaucratic, “the individual must […] undertake an essential schism within himself.”   Jacoby is saying that the bureaucrat must make a distinction between the ‘bureaucratic’ self and the ‘social’ self, which is what Watanabe has been unable to do.  The two selves are one and the same in Watanabe, and when he separates the two, by deciding to do something about the cesspool (which is in contrast to what his ‘bureaucratic’ self would do), the film separates in two.  Now this might be inferring too much, but the text does offer many insights into the film that none of the other authors have made.  While the book deals neither with cinema nor Ikiru, it provides an understanding of the process of bureaucratization and the bureaucratic system that allows for applications to the film.  By applying these concepts and theories to the film, one comes away with a unique understanding of the film.