Chapter 1: Questions of Language
Chapter 2: A Search for Identity
Chapter 3: Culture Wars, Soul Searching, and Belarusian
Identity
Chapter 4: Belarusian Economy
Chapter 5: Belarusian Political Landscape
Chapter 6: Alexander Lukashenka and His Detractors
Chapter 7: Opinion Polls and Presidential Elections in Belarus
Conclusion
Grigory Ioffe is professor of geography at Radford University.
The scholarly component in this volume is impressively high, making
it perhaps the best study in English of a little-known and
under-researched country. . . . [Ioffe] bears an immense knowledge
of things Belarusian . . . [and] he sheds much needed light on the
polity, economy, and society actually obtaining in [Belarus].
*Eurasian Geography and Economics*
An important and timely book, articulating topical and emerging
issues in Belarusian studies. . . . [Ioffe] takes a critical look
at the established views on such issues as Belarusian identity,
language use (Belarusian versus Russian), relations with Russia
(unification versus independence), Aliaksandar Lukashenka as a
political figure (the reasons behind his genuine popularity among
his people and his rejection by the west, despite the west’s
acceptance of some much less democratic Central Asian leaders), the
growth of the Belarusian economy . . . and, finally, the
projections for the opposition. . . . [A] carefully researched and
significant book that tries 'to understand Belarus on its own
terms.’
*Slavic Review*
Effortlessly captivates a much broader audience and essentially
calls 'well-known truths’ about the country into question.
Understanding Belarus is a book about challenging facts,
challenging qualifications and polemic conclusions, a book that
touches one personally. . . . It craftily weaves together Belarus’
complicated domestics with its foreign relations, in addition to
critically assessing the logic of international society. . . .
Ioffe successfully manages to turn Belarus’ regime 'inside-out’ to
expose its sui generis logic of survival that responds to the often
inflexible politics of great powers.
*Nationalities Papers*
Grigory Ioffe's thorough and extremely insightful study . . .
provides a balanced, well-structured and information introduction
to the nature of nation-building and the political regime in
contemporary Belarus.
*Europe-Asia Studies*
Grigory Ioffe’s Understanding Belarus and How Western Foreign
Policy Misses the Mark is a profound, learned book that will force
the reader to question the conventional dogmas about the meaning of
democracy in post-Soviet space. Lucidly written, carefully
researched, and extraordinarily insightful about the unique
dynamics of emerging Belarusian nationalism, this book is a
must-read for any scholar of Belarus or post-Soviet countries.
*Ilya Prizel, University of Pittsburgh*
Grigory Ioffe set as his goal to create a 'less ideological and
more open approach' to an understanding of the history, politics,
social system, and economy of Belarus. He has succeeded in
producing a persuasive alternative to the well-known earlier
interpretations by Jan Zaprudnik and David Marples. Ioffe’s main
focus is on the search for Belarusian identity and an explanation
of its peculiar relationship to Russia both historically and
contemporaneously. Belarus remains for most of us dimly illuminated
and something of an enigma. Good policy toward Belarus needs to be
founded on a solid understanding, which Grigory Ioffe has provided
in this very useful volume.
*James R. Millar, The George Washington University*
Grigory Ioffe is perhaps our most insightful analyst of
contemporary Belarus, and this is a distinguished study that brings
together the insights of first-hand experience and the wider
concerns of social science. In particular, this is a study that
allows him to explore at length the complex nature of the identity
of a small European nation that has historically been torn between
East and West. All who are interested in the future of European
politics as well as the development of the former Soviet republics
will want to read this rich and provocative analysis.
*Stephen White, University of Glasgow*
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