The great errors -- Size matters -- The cost of the cold -- Geography is not destiny -- Siberia : plenty of room for error -- Disconnected Russia -- Taking stock : how much has changed? -- Can Russia shrink? -- Russia of the mind -- Tearing down Potemkin Russia
Summary
"Shattering a number of myths that have long persisted in the West and in Russia, The Siberian Curse explains why Russia's greatest assets - its gigantic size and Siberia's natural resources - are now the source of one of its greatest weaknesses. For seventy years, driven by ideological zeal and the imperative to colonize and industrialize its vast frontiers, communist planners forced people to live in Siberia. They did this in true totalitarian fashion by using the GULAG prison system and slave labor to build huge factories and million-person cities to support them." "Hill and Gaddy contend that Russia's future prosperity requires that it finally throw off the shackles of its Soviet past by shrinking Siberia's cities. Only by facilitating the relocation of population to western Russia, closer to Europe and its markets, can Russia achieve sustainable economic growth."--BOOK JACKET
Notes
Formerly CIP. Uk
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-292) and index
