Title
Abstract
The Russian political system remains subject to sudden radical change--this has been the basic logic of its political history since 1985. Only by understanding the processes and logics of that recent history of change can one understand the present and the (possibly radically different) future.
In December 1991 Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (the USSR's largest republic, known as RSFSR), joined Stanislav Shushkevich of Belarus and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine in dissolving the Soviet Union and replacing it with the ill-defined Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The RSFSR was transformed into the Russian Federation, and the process of political transformation and state building was under way, and it continues apace.
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2006
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2006 Facts On File. This book chapter first appeared in World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties.
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Recommended Citation
Hass, Jeffrey K. "Russian Federation." In World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties, edited by Neil Schlager, Jayne Weisblatt, and Orlando J. Pérez, 1127-142. 4th ed. Vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, 2006.