Grigorij Derluguian, New York University Abu Dhabi, Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: derluguian@gmail.com.
Why did the USSR’s parting with socialism turned out to be so destructive to the state and society? Answering this question becomes even more urgent as we witness the counterexample of China, which, despite its swift integration in global capitalist economy, so far managed to avoid the collapse of the state. Theoretical breakthroughs of the second half of the 20th century — the “golden age of macrosociology” — provide a unified conceptual framework for explaining the divergent trajectories of post-socialist transformations. This paper employs the world-system (I. Wallerstein) and the geopolitical (R. Collins) approaches to explain the Soviet “failure” and the Chinese “success”. While the USSR was playing the great power game in world politics, trying to integrate into the capitalist world as one of the leading players, China remained on the sidelines of the Cold War, but tried to strengthen its economic links with the West, groping for its own place in the international division of labour. At the times when overcentralized USSR was losing controllability during drastic internal and external twists and turns of Perestroika, China, virtually by accident, reproduced the “Asian Tigers” model combining strong authoritarian state and market economy.
Key words: USSR, state, bureaucracy, perestroika, M. Gorbachev, China.

Aleksandr Shubin, Center of History of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia of Institute of world history RAS, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: historian905@gmail.com.

The problem of the collapse of the Soviet Union has been still much discussed in academic literature and social and political journalism. The researchers try to find the reasons of lack of vitality of the Soviet Union in the circumstances of its birth and in contingencies of its last year of existence. Finally, the question turns into the dilemma: was the Soviet Union in the middle of the 1980s doomed to the breakdown in the years ahead or could it survive until the twentieth century but for the activities of the main politicians in the early 1990s?

Taking into consideration the importance of genesis of the USSR, we know that the soviet system suffered from several historical stages, overcame many crises including the Second World War. It means that all defects put during the creation of the USSR couldn’t bring it to the downfall. The reasons of the collapse of the Soviet Union should be searched in crises which the system met in the 1980s. Were they insuperable? What is their hierarchy from the point of view of the importance for the USSR’s existence?

This article justifies the point of view according to which the collapse of the Soviet government was the result of the elites’ struggle for power and resources. This confrontation made other “diseases” fatal for the country. Multidimensional systematic crisis widened in maximum the freedom of choice for the republican elite which decided to guarantee itself the power by distancing from the center.

Key words: USSR, perestroika, M.S. Gorbachev, bureaucracy, systematic crisis.

Sergei Ivanov, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: 02isa02@mail.ru.

The article attempts to offer an explanation of how Chinese communist state was able to survive through protest movement of 1989 and why reforms didn’t transform into state collapse or regime change. The research, based on the revolutionary theory, analyses the stability of political regime through the lens of ideology characteristics, degree of elite unity and challenges coming from international political system. The following questions were studied: was the protest of 1989 a reaction on the ideology bankruptcy, why political regime was able to suppress dangerous extension of the protest and why Chinese state was able to neutralize external pressure after Tiananmen disorders.

Similarly with most of other countries of socialist camp, social protest directed against political regime was a consequence of decay of socialism and an inability of new upgraded ideology to explain new social reality emerged during reform period. The upsurge of the protest was prevented due to the two main factors. First, political elite in China was able to consolidate in front of protest which got dangerously out of hand. Second, China was in a favorable geopolitical situation when Western countries didn’t strictly insist on the Chinese state to comply with Western ideological norms.

Key words: China, Tiananmen, protest, political regime, revolutionary theory, socialism.

Anatolij Savchenko, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: savich21@mail.ru.
The article focused on explanation of the disintegration of the Soviet Union via detecting an interconnections of the task of the Soviet foreign policy and task of holding the power in the country. While the geopolitical explanation of the process of the disintegration as outcome of shortage of the sources due to excessive costs for military and defense is common view, the article shows that the very success of the gorbachev`s foreign policy was the direct impetus for the disintegration. As result of his maneuvers on the international stage, Gorbachev found itself as hostage by its image of “democrat” and “man who changed the World”. Such reputation, as well as growing dependence on the Western`s financial support deprived him of the room for maneuver in domestic policy, first of all he was restricted significantly in capability to suppress opposition and disobedience. The main argument of the paper: hardly it is possible to explain the disintegration of USSR by sole main reason. Just the opposite, we have to deal with the fine-spun node of short-term and durable processes, tactic and strategic decisions.
Key words: Soviet Union, geopolitics, disintegration, decentralization, power, governance.

Alexander Korolev, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: akorolev@nus.edu.sg.
Democratization is routinely perceived as the main step toward a socially effective state. The goal of this paper is to enhance understanding of the political regime’s impact on social effectiveness, understood as a degree of satisfaction of the population’s basic social needs. In contrast to previous studies, which explored democracy’ saggregate impact, this paper disintegrates democracy into two key components — competition and participation — and explores the relative impact of each on social basic needs. Cross-national statistical tests demonstrate that democracy’s impact is not clear-cut: while public participation in politics has a positive impact on basic needs, the impact excessive inter-elite competition on states’ social effectiveness is rather negative. The article is focused on the rational for revisiting the such “huge” questions as what democracy is it, how can we measure it, and what kind might have been the ideal model of democracy. The attempts to get inside and find out — which aspects of political regimes could exert the impact for improving the social wellbeing, but which could not, means a new interpretation of the essence of the democratization.
Key words: democracy, democratization, basic needs, competition, participation, social effectiveness.

Tat’yana Shugaylo, Arseniev State Associated Мuseum of Primorsky Region, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: Randy-t@rambler.ru.
The article studies the attitudes of Russian expat community in the USA towards interethnic processes in the USSR and the role of Soviet political leadership in 1986—1991. Based on the analysis of some emigrant publications of various political overtones (newspapers “Russkaya zhizn”, “Novoe russkoe slovo”, “Russkiy golos”, a magazine “Soglasie”), there is a conclusion that relating to perestroika processes started changing the image of Russia in anticommunist as well as pro-Soviet groups of Russian expat community in the USA. Two periods can be distinguished in the evolution of opinions. In 1986—1989, the Russian press in the USA reflected mainly two polar viewpoints. Anticommunist publications examined contradictory national policy of the USSR through guidelines of “the cold war” concentrating on negative sides of this policy and blaming the government in Russification. Waiting from M.S. Gorbachev for certain radical steps, the editions criticized him for piecemeal reforms. The pro-Soviet press (newspaper “Russkiy golos”), on the contrary, supporting the political course of the USSR, approved reformative initiatives of M.S. Gorbachev by avoiding negative standpoints on the activity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and suppressing interethnic issues. A revulsion of mood happened in 1990 when the processes of the republics’ sovereignization occurred. In 1990—1991, anticommunist and pro-Soviet editions uniteddue to the concern about the collapse of the USSR regarding it as a security threat to Russia and its territorial integrity. But in general, the emigrant press estimated positively the breakdown of the Soviet political system and hoped for the creation of a new democratic economically powerful Russian state predicting revival of the union federation with new conditions.
Key words: Russian emigration in the United States, the Russian emigrant press, the USSR, M.S. Gorbachev, perestroika, national policy.

Larisa Garusova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. Е-mail: lgarusova@mail.ru.
The fight against terrorism has been a Central focus of U.S. foreign policy over the past 15 years. American strategy against terrorism must solve two basic tasks: to protect the U.S. and its allies from terrorist attacks and create unfavorable environment for international terrorism. Today, Washington’s counter-terrorism strategy includes 4 basic elements: to use of American armed forces, but not in the format of the ground war; 2) training and supplying Syrian and Iraqi fighters with military equipment to combat with terrorism; 3) strengthening international counter-terrorism cooperation; 4) the transition from a military to a political settlement of the Syrian crisis. Currently, terrorism has taken on new forms, and the Internet has become a key factor in the spread of extremist propaganda all around the world. The Asia-Pacific region has both significant terrorist and counter-terrorist potential. From the point of view of national and global terrorist threats today the greatest interest for US represent the 3 types of countries: 1) countries that were declared the “sponsors” of terrorism by the U.S. now or a few years ago (e.g. North Korea); 2) countries with significant or dominant proportion of the Muslim population, predisposed to the propaganda of the “Islamic state” (Indonesia, Malaysia, partly China); 3) countries being traditional partners the US counter-terrorism activity (Australia, Japan, South Korea).The United States and the West should focus on the socio-economic causes of the terrorism, then they will be able to restrain it and avoid catastrophic defeat in the fight against this evil.
Key words: international terrorism, U.S. Strategy, national security, international counter-terrorism cooperation, the Asia-Pacific region.

Aleksandr Dybovsky, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. E-mail: dybovski@lang.osaka-u.ac.jp.
Lilija Larina, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: lilylar25@mail.ru.

The article is devoted to the study of value orientations of Japanese and South Korean youth. A comparative analysis of the questionnaire results of the students of several universities of Japan and South Korea was done in 2015 and is conducted in this work. The research showed that both Japanese and South Korean young people, being the representatives of postindustrial society, keep the path of individualism and further emancipation of personality and are inclined to egocentric actions moving away from a traditional family and Confucian values because their life strategies are mainly focused on the present. At the same time, young people of both countries show devotion to the Confucian tradition.

Substantial similarity of two groups of respondents is caused in many ways by the fact that the analysed nations possessing own unique cultures and communicating as the inhabitants of neighboring countries have developed for several centuries under the powerful effect of Chinese civilization. In the second half of the twentieth century, being affected by the strong American influence, they followed swiftly the way of westernization which was determined by world trends of the human development of the last decades of the twentieth century — internationalization and globalization. The differences of value orientations of Japanese and South Korean young people are probably explained by peculiarities of combination of original and borrowed cultural forms, a different degree of rootedness of Chinese cultural archetypes in public conscience of two nations as well as specifics of westernization of Japan and South Korea in the last decades.

Key words: Japanese students, South Korean students, value orientations, comparative analysis, similarities and differences, egocentrism, attitude to parents, attitude to friends, attitude to job placement, attitude to marriage.

Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Australian National University, College of Asia and the Pacific, School of Culture History and Language, University of Leeds, School of Geography, Canberra, Australia. E-mail: robert.winstanley-chesters@anu.edu.au

Recent geological prospecting by North Korea’s developmental agencies in partnership with Australian companies has been framed as an engagement with the ultimate opaque resource frontier. This paper seeks to challenge/reframe this notion of opacity through continued analysis of a collection of geological and development-focused documentation sourced from the Record Group 242, of the United States National Archives. This material obtained by US Army document gatherers during Pyongyang’s occupation in late 1950 provides an extraordinary window into the developmental possibilities conceptualized by North Korea and partners during the brief period from Liberation to the outbreak of the Korean War.

Building upon developmental imperatives of the Government General of Chosen and the legacy of mineralogical colonialism throughout the Korean Peninsula, this paper encounters within the collection a landscape of institutional optimism in the field. Pyongyang, technicians from the Soviet Union and elsewhere where not only tasked with harnessing North Korea’s geological capacity, but the creation of a new developmental and social terrain. Analysis of blueprints from the collection reveal in detail new facilities, communities and infrastructure in outline. Previous work on this collection by the author has sought to project forward this infrastructure’s productive capacity and connect with current analysis of the Yongju deposit. However this neglects the contemporary “lived reality” of the spaces and places of Soviet and North Korea mineralogical interaction, as both nations sought, as evidenced by this collection, a configuration of both nation and society which served the interests of an internationally minded “socialist modern”.
Key words: North Korea, North Korean and Russian exchanges, Mineral Extraction, Archives and Sources.

Yuliya Argudiaeva, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEBRAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: argudiaeva@mail.ru.
The article examines the issues of marriage in peasant environment in Russia and the peculiarities of family formation among Russian Old Believers in the south part of the Far East of Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century — the first third of the twentieth century. It is found out that the south of the Far East experienced shortage of brides during this period. Initially, it was connected with the migration policy of the government which sought to send to the region with difficult nature and ecological conditions families with predominant number of male workers in order for the successful development of arable farming. The Old Believers started marital relations early. There were different forms of marriage: the unwed marriage dominated among the Bezpopovtsy; the church wedding in the Old Believer churches was among the Popovtsy; “Semeyskiye” Old Believers rarely had marriages ubegom, kradche. The most of marriages were made within their agreement; however, due to the deficit of brides and disperse settlement of the Old Believers, there were often marriages with the partner from another confession with obligatory conversion to Old Belief. This expanded marital and household relations and favoured quicker adaptation of peasants to the local nature and ecological, economic, and demographic conditions. Remarriage happened seldom, divorce was not welcomed. Although the dominance of socially and ethnically homogeneous marriages was evident, there were many families with complicated regional and ethnic composition (Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Poles, Udegei). It showed once again that national identity of the spouse didn’t play important role for the Old Believers; the Old Orthodox confession was more crucial.
Key words: Russians, Old Believers; the south of the Far East of Russia, Popovtsy, Bezpopovtsy, demographic behavior; marriage traditions, adaptation.

Anna Zabiyako, Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia. E-mail: sciencia@yandex.ru.
Andrej Zabiyako, Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia. E-mail: sciencia@yandex.ru.
Jana Zinenko, Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia. E-mail: yasya11111@mail.ru.
Zhang Ruyang, Amur State University, Blagoveshchensk, Russia. E-mail: 358860148@qq.com.
The article focuses on the Russians living in Trekhrech’ye in the North-East of China. In terms of field studies of the Russian-speaking population from Trekhrech’ye the authors come to the conclusion that the language, particularly speech genres related to the family history and everyday life (family urban legends) are the most important basis of ethno-cultural identification. Family memorats of Russian inhabitants of Trekhrech’ye preserve the information about historical processes of the beginning of the twentieth century and reflect ethno-cultural specificity of the Russian descendants in Trekhrech’ye. Historical memory of the inhabitants of Trekhrech’ye starts with the marriage of Russian and Chinese ancestors. This event becomes a source of mythologization of the history of the ethnical group of the Russians in Trekhrech‘ye. The main topics of the memorats are the stages of formation of entho-cultural community of the Russians in Trekhrech’ye, the epoch of the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria, the liberation of China by the Soviet Army, the years of the Cultural Revolution. The latter became the reason for language forgetting in half-blood families. The tales about childhood, thirst for Russian language and the attitude towards Orthodoxy have a special place in the urban legends. These speech genres transform gradually into stable folklore texts with composition, stylistics, and pragmatics. Family memorats become the basis of historical memory and a form of preservation of the identity of the Russians from Trekhrech’ye in Chinese environment.
Key words: migration, Trekhrech’ye, ethnography, folklore, speech genres, memorats, ethnicity, identity, Russianness, ethno-cultural identification, historical memory.

Victoria Matyushchenko, Amur State Medical Academy, Blagoveschensk, Russia. E-mail: V89246728625@yandex.ru.

The article analyses a problem of transformation of the rites of passage1 (wedding, maternity, funeral) among the Amur Old Believers of Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The study of changes is done on the basis of the author’s field studies about the Popovtsy Old Believers.

The loss of traditional wedding rites under stable preservation of church wedding is revealed.

The simplicity of maternity rites is discovered during the examination in the middle of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century in comparison to those which the Bespopovtsy had. The analysed group of the Old Believers didn’t have pagan atavisms and superstitions in ritual practice already in the middle of the twentieth century.

A special role the Amur Popovtsy Old Believers give to christening and further introduction to the church. The funeral and commemorative rites of the Old Believers in the middle of the twentieth century are also simplified: the ritual starts to be based on strict confessional directions. Archaic elements are accepted as pagan and gradually either disappear or syncretize with Christian with new interpretation.

The author comes to the conclusion that modern Old Belief of Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy in the Amur Region has poor ritual activity which is limited by the processes connected with the priest’s participation or prescribed in the church rules.

Key words: Old Belief, Popovtsy, Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy, traditions, rite, traditional morals and manners, migrations, adaptation.

Elena Rudnikova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: elena.rudnikova@mail.ru.

During 1992—2013, New Zealanders adopted about one thousand Russian children who were foster children at orphanage and care homes. The main aim of the research is the creation of objective picture of the adoption process from the Russian Federation to New Zealand and description of its participants. One of primary objectives is the characteristics of transformations in enthnocultural identity of this category of migrants. It is concluded that all changes were determined by the isolation degree of children — full or partial — from Russian cultural and language environment. Besides, a strategy of behaviour of foster parents and the age of a child during adoption were of crucial importance.

It is admitted that there is a conflict situation of enthnocultural identities during juvenile period. It is revealed that the decrease of the conflict degree was favoured by those new parents who kept a Russian name of a child, informed him about the fact of adoption, helped him to search a biological father and mother, supported his knowledge of the Russian language and the interest towards Russian culture by attending the Russian courses and ethnic activities organized by Russian immigrants.

The conclusions are illustrated by real life stories of adoptions. The work bases on of data and results of foreign studies, various information published in the New Zealand press in 1990—2015, field studies of the author for 2010—2011.

Key words: Russian immigrants, New Zealand, international adoption, adopted Russian children, foster parents, foster-families.

Galina Titoreva, Khabarovsk regional museum after N.I. Grodekov, Khabarovsk, Russia. E-mail: mazo2005@mail.ru.

The article examines the system of children’s upbringing and socialization in nomadic reindeer-breeding culture of the Evens of the seaside of Okhotsk. The main aim of traditional upbringing of the Evens was formation of moral and physical qualities necessary for successful survival in special conditions of the northern climate and nomadic style of life of taiga reindeer-breeders. Applicative knowledge and experience, moral and ethical norms of behaviour in a family or a production group passed on from an early age and in everyday life. An activity approach of upbringing and education of a child was used. The main social and vital qualities of a person vital for the pedagogical system of the north nomads were independence, diligence, and endurance. Great significance in a bringing-up process was attached to children’s games which reproduced activity and relations of elder members of a family.

The article emphasizes the issues of transformation and preservation of the foundations of traditional Ethnopedagogics in the Soviet historical period which were caused by introduction of the boarding school for the Evenschildren. This new system provoked the break of relations between children and parents and elder generation; new reality interrupted a traditional channel of knowledge and experience transfer which were important for further development of all spheres of material and intellectual culture of the ethnos. An attempt to resist a destructive process was the project “Patrimonial nomad camp” which was realized during ten years in the village Arka of Okhotsky District.

The traditions of Ethnopedagogics of the Evens accumulating centuries-old experience and rational knowledge are a part of historical and cultural legacy of the peoples of the circumpolar zone and deserve a careful study, preservation, and use of family and school education and upbringing in practice.

Key words: gambling, South Korea, casino, prohibition, «Gangwon Land», foreigners, Incheon, policy, fine, PRC, online game, Macao, entertainment center, Japan.