解读俄罗斯政局书籍集萃编辑本段回目录
KATHRYN STONER-WEISS is Senior Researcher and Deputy Director at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
作者：凯瑟琳·斯通纳-魏斯
凯瑟琳·斯通纳-魏斯，斯坦福大学弗里曼-斯伯格里国际研究院副院长暨民主、发展及法治学科高级研究员。
Over the last two decades, observers of Russian politics have debated whether or not the country was a democracy under its first president, Boris Yeltsin, and what kind of autocracy it became under his successor, Vladimir Putin. Other key themes have been what exactly happened during the transition from communism and how to characterize the country's post-Soviet economy.
在过去的二十年，俄罗斯政局的观察者对于该国是否在其首任总统鲍里斯·叶利钦的领导下成为一个民主国家，以及是否在其继任者弗拉基米尔·普京手下变为何种独裁国家这两个问题多有争论。其他关键主题多集中于俄罗斯自共产主义转轨中经历了几多风雨，以及如何描述这个国家在后苏联时代的经济。
The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire. By John B. Dunlop. Princeton University Press, 1995.
1. 《苏维埃帝国的衰亡与俄罗斯的崛起》，作者：约翰·B·邓洛普；普林斯顿大学出版社出版，1995.
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John Dunlop's account of the demise of the Soviet Union in the late summer and fall of 1991 is incomparable in its attention to detail, and it reveals a different Mikhail Gorbachev than the one usually depicted in the Western press -- portraying him not as a victim of a Keystone Cops coup attempt, but as a possible accomplice in the effort to depose him. Gorbachev might have been waiting to see who would emerge triumphant, Dunlop argues -- the State Committee on the State of Emergency (including members of his own Politburo) or Yeltsin, the newly elected president of the Russian Federation and Gorbachev's political nemesis.
约翰·邓洛普对苏联在1991年夏秋之交轰然倒塌的陈述于其对细节的关注方面无出其后者，而且本书不落一般西方出版物的窠臼，令一个面貌不同的米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫跃然纸上——不再将其描述为一个愚蠢且徒劳（此处原文为Keystone Cops——译注）的政变企图的受害者，倒是一名最终导致自己下台并为之努力的（政治集团）的从犯帮凶。邓洛普认为，戈尔巴乔夫本想引蛇出洞，看看到底是国家紧急状态委员会（包括在他掌握下的政治局一部分成员）还是叶利钦，这名新任俄罗斯联邦总统，同时也是戈尔巴乔夫的政治死敌（会洋洋得意毕露原形）。
Yeltsin: A Life. By Timothy J. Colton. Basic Books, 2008.
2. 《叶利钦：人生几何》，作者：蒂莫西·J·科尔顿；基本书局出版，2008.
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Timothy Colton's sweeping narrative of Yeltsin's life and political battles is unparalleled in its coverage of the political and personal journey of the founder of modern Russia. In Russia, Yeltsin has largely been reviled as a drunkard who conceded too easily to Western demands. He is also often blamed for the economic ills that befell the country in the 1990s. This biography provides a more nuanced view. Yeltsin's critics have argued that Colton is soft on his subject, but the book is actually relatively balanced and worth reading for the insights the author culled from unique interviews with Yeltsin and his family.
蒂莫西·科尔顿对叶利钦——这名现代俄罗斯的奠基者政治与个人的一生及其政治斗争方面的宏大叙事是前无古人的。在俄罗斯，叶利钦很大程度上被看作是个轻易即向西方屈服的醉汉，他也常常因为90年代降临俄罗斯的经济痼疾而遭到责难。这本传记提供了一种更为细腻的视角。叶利钦的批判者认为科尔顿对其笔下的人物过于温和，不过，实际上本书取得了相当的平衡，而且因为作者自其与叶利钦及其家人的独家访谈中获得的深刻见解而颇值得一读。
First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President. By Vladimir Putin, Nataliya Gevorkyan, Natalya Timakova, and Andrei Kolesnikov. PublicAffairs, 2000.
3. 《第一视角：一份来自俄罗斯总统笔下令人惊讶而直率的自我剖析》（书名一般译为《第一人：普京自述》——译注），作者：弗拉基米尔·普京，娜塔莉亚·基禾恩，娜塔莉亚·齐玛科娃及安德烈·克列斯尼科夫合著；公共事务出版者出版，2000.
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This is an informative short book of interviews with post-Soviet Russia's second president, offering a window onto his thinking and early career. When Putin was appointed prime minister by Yeltsin in August 1999 and then became acting president five months later, following Yeltsin's unexpected resignation, little was known about him. No books on his life were available, and few Russians had heard of him. To educate the public about its new leader (and help him win election as president in his own right in March 2000), the Kremlin set out to build up Putin's image. A select group of Russian journalists was given access for a series of interviews on Putin's life and beliefs, and this book is the result. Readers learn that Putin was as surprised as anyone to have been named Yeltsin's preferred successor, and he admits to having taken the job only on Yeltsin's insistence. Putin describes his KGB past and says he never quit the Communist Party when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but rather quietly slipped his party card into his desk drawer.
这是一本有关后苏联时代俄罗斯第二任总统的内容丰富的小书，使读者得以开窗透视其早年生涯以及思想见解。1999年8月，当普京被叶利钦任命为总理，五个月后叶利钦出人意料地辞职后担任代总统时，外界对他的了解还不多。没有描述普京生平的书籍，在俄罗斯他也少人知晓。为了向公众介绍他们的新任领导人（也为了帮助他在2000年3月举行的总统大选中真正身登大宝），克林姆林宫打算强化普京的形象。一些精挑细选出的俄罗斯记者取得了一连串探访普京生平和理念的机会，最后付梓成书。读者们能从中看到，普京与其他人一样惊讶于被叶利钦挑选为继任者，而且他也承认自己能得到这份职务全靠叶利钦的支持。普京描述了他在克格勃的过往岁月，也陈述其在1991年苏联倒台时并未选择退出共产党，而是静静地将他的党员证收入了自己的书桌抽屉中。
Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change From Gorbachev to Putin. By Michael McFaul. Cornell University Press, 2001.
4. 《俄罗斯未竟之革命：从戈尔巴乔夫到普京的政治变革》，作者：迈克尔·麦克法尔；康奈尔大学出版社出版，2001.
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Michael McFaul's book offers a broader discussion of the development of post-Gorbachev Russian institutions. He analyzes the unintended consequences of the simultaneous political and economic transitions in Russia, and, thanks to unprecedented access to key decisionmakers, the book is replete with insider reflections on the emerging political process. McFaul was recently appointed to the staff of the National Security Council as senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, so in addition to offering insights on Russia's difficult path away from communism, his analysis might hold some clues to the Obama administration's future policy toward Russia.
迈克尔·麦克法尔笔下的本书广泛讨论了后戈尔巴乔夫时代俄罗斯体系的发展。他对俄罗斯意料之外同时发生的政治和经济转轨做出了分析，并且，归功于与关键决策者前所未有的紧密接触，本书也包含了大量局内人对新兴政治局势看法的内容。麦克法尔最近被国土安全部任命为俄罗斯和欧亚事务高级主管，所以，更能洞察俄罗斯在远离共产主义时的艰难步伐，他的分析也许包含了些许透视奥巴马政府未来对俄政策的线索。
Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics. By M. Steven Fish. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
5. 《俄罗斯的民主出轨：政治开放的失败》，作者：M·斯蒂文·费舍；剑桥大学出版社出版，2005.
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Where McFaul's book is largely an account of the early successes of Russian democracy, M. Steven Fish looks at the failures of the process. He blames them not on inert antidemocratic Russian political culture nor on the structural obstacles highlighted by modernization theory -- that is, the idea that Russian economic development was insufficiently advanced to generate the social changes required to support democracy. Instead, he points to institutional changes during the Yeltsin years, the lack of economic reforms, and the curse of an economy dependent on natural-resource exports.
麦克法尔写作的书籍大部分讲述了俄罗斯民主早期的成功，而M·斯蒂文·费舍则将视线投注到了其后民主进程的失败。他并未将之归罪于俄罗斯怠惰和反民主的政治文化，或者藉由现代化理论凸显出的结构性障碍——换言之，俄罗斯经济的发展不足以催生支持民主所必需的社会变革。相反的，费舍直指叶利钦时代的体制变迁，经济革新的缺失，以及倚靠自然资源出口的经济体系埋下的祸根。
How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. By Anders Åslund. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
6. 《资本主义何以建立：中东欧、俄罗斯及中亚的变革》，作者：安德斯·艾斯兰德；剑桥大学出版社出版，2007.
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Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia. By Marshall I. Goldman. Oxford University Press, 2008.
7. 《石油国家：普京、权威及新俄罗斯》，作者：马歇尔·高曼；牛津大学出版社出版，2008.
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Few good books have been written on the fascinating and unpredictable course of Russian economic development. Two worthy of note, however, are Anders Åslund's How Capitalism Was Built and Marshall Goldman's Petrostate. Åslund is a longtime observer and analyst of the Russian economy who also served as an adviser to Russian policymakers in the early 1990s. His book provides an excellent overview of the uncertain road to economic growth in Eastern Europe in general and Russia in particular. Critics might argue that whatever economic system Russia has today, it is not capitalism, but Åslund provides compelling arguments as to how the system came about by describing the choices and mistakes made over the last 20 years. Goldman's Petrostate, meanwhile, is an account of Russia's largely post-Yeltsin economic boom. Written for a general audience as much as for scholars, the book focuses on Russia's role as the world's second-largest (after Saudi Arabia) exporter of crude oil. Goldman has had good access to policymakers and allows readers to get the flavor of how, say, the Russian gas giant Gazprom functions in practice. The book is particularly interesting to read now, as the country struggles with the drop in oil prices during a global economic recession.
在描述俄罗斯经济引人注目和不可预知的发展方面少有佳作。然而，有两本书值得一提，即安德斯·艾斯兰德所著《资本主义何以建立》及马歇尔·高曼笔下的《石油国家》。艾斯兰德长期以来都是俄罗斯经济的观察者和分析者，同时也是90年代俄罗斯政策制定者的顾问。他的著作是对通常意义上东欧经济，特别是俄罗斯经济发展不确定道路的极好综述。批评家或许会认为不论俄罗斯今日拥有何种经济体系，都不能算作资本主义，但是艾斯兰德通过指出过去二十年来俄罗斯经济体系的抉择与错误有力地辩驳了这一观点。同时，高曼的《石油国家》也描述了俄罗斯在后叶利钦时代大规模的经济腾飞。此书既适合大众阅览，也值得学者研读，将笔力集中于俄罗斯作为仅次于沙特阿拉伯的世界第二大原油出口国的地位之上。高曼与政策制定者多有接触，令读者得以体味那些石油工业巨头，比如俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司如何实际运营。特别是在这个全球经济衰退，俄罗斯与下调的油价奋力斗争的时节，本书读来更加有趣。
