From Human Geographies, Zsofia Papp and Agnes Raffay (Pannoni): Factors Influencing the Tourism Competitiveness of Former Socialist Countries. Russian-born, American-trained economist Andrei Shleifer on seven things he learned about transition from communism. Pravda may be gone, but Russia’s propaganda machine is stronger than ever, thanks to cable network RT. David Satter on his book It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past. The stillborn project of a Eurasian Union: Andreas Umland on why post-Soviet integration has little prospects. A passport to utopia: The satirical NSK State movement was founded in socialist Yugoslavia in 1984 — it has now opened four embassies. A review of The Socialist Car: Automobility in the Eastern Bloc (and more). The Red Army loved it, foreigners despised it: How Maotai became the world's only Socialist luxury brand. A review of Pleasures in Socialism: Leisure and Luxury in the Eastern Bloc by David Crowley and Susan Reid. How Gogol explains the post-Soviet world (and Chekhov and Dostoyevsky): The case for (re)reading Russia's greatest literary classics.
