Andreas Umland is Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for European Security in the Institute of International Relations at Prague, Principal Researcher of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation at Kyiv, and General Editor of the ibidem-Verlag book series “Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society”.

“This volume is by no means just an exposition of yet another point of view on the phenomenon of Russian work culture and its role in Russia‘s ‘modernization breakthroughs.’ It presents an unexpected and original approach, an absolutely new perspective of this seemingly old topic. On the one hand, the authors consider Russia’s national work culture in the context of ‘foreign influence’ and test it for resistance to external pressures. On the other hand, they reveal ‘the foreign trace’ in its fabric ― the features that were introduced and internalized in the course of direct and indirect contacts with foreign cultures. For the authors, Russian national work culture is not a finished, static entity, but a dynamic system that is in permanent interaction with (predominantly) Western culture and has largely developed in direct competition with it. It is this approach that makes this book exceptionally appealing.” -- Vladimir N. Leksin, Institute of System Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences

“THE PUBLICATION OF THIS BOOK IN ENGLISH MARKS THE NEXT TURN IN the ever-important and ever-uneasy relationship between Russia and the West, both in its pragmatic and ideological dimensions…” Judith Pallot, University of Oxford, Europe-Asia Studies, November 2018