| Description |
1 online resource |
| Contents |
Introduction: Russia's nutritional autocracy -- The starving empire: Food and politics in the USSR -- Food and market: The hungry, 1991-1993 -- Farmers will not feed Russian: The failure of Yeltsin's agrarian reforms -- The rise of grain, 2000-2010 -- Food, security, and food security -- Sanctions and countersanctions -- Top feeders: The government and Russia's agro- capitalism -- The COVID-19 food crisis, 2020-2021 -- The war in Ukraine and Russia's food politics -- Conclusion |
| Summary |
"Food has been crucial to the functioning and survival of governments and regimes since the emergence of early states. Only in a few countries is the connection between food and politics as pronounced as in Russia. Virtually every significant development in Russian and Soviet history since the 1917 Revolution has been either directly driven by or closely associated with the question of food and access to it. Food shortages played a critical role in the collapse of both the Russian Empire and the USSR. Under Vladimir Putin's watch, Russia, a major importer of grain, transformed itself into the world's largest exporter. Bread and Autocracy focuses on this crucial yet widely overlooked transformation. The book argues that this transformation was a result of a deliberate government strategy. The Kremlin's aim is to achieve nutritional independence and shield Putin's Russia from dependence on food imports. Self-sufficiency in key food staples is meant to protect the regime from food shortages in case of a major confrontation with the West, for which Putin has long prepared. Russia's focus on nutritional self-sufficiency also sets the country apart from almost all modern autocracies. While many authoritarian regimes have adopted industrial import-substitution policies, in Putin's Russia it is the substitution of food imports with domestically produced crops that is crucial for regime survival. Bread and Autocracy presents the connection between food, politics, and security in post-Soviet Russia and shows the emergence of food self-sufficiency as key pillar of regime security, stability, and survival"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-233) and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 20, 2023) |
| Subject |
Food supply -- Political aspects -- Russia (Federation)
|
|
Food security -- Russia (Federation)
|
|
Food supply -- Political aspects
|
|
Diplomatic relations
|
|
Food security
|
|
Industry & industrial studies.
|
|
Politics and government
|
|
Farming and Country Life.
|
| SUBJECT |
Russia (Federation) -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh88002518
|
|
Russia (Federation) -- Foreign relations.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2005000242
|
| Subject |
Russia (Federation)
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Brudny, Yitzhak M., author
|
|
Finkel, Eugene, author
|
| ISBN |
0197684408 |
|
9780197684405 |
|
9780197684382 |
|
0197684386 |
|
