The transition from a planned economy to a market economy was initiated in Russia in the beginning of the 90s. The three components: privatization, liberalization and stabilization constitute the trinity of the transition theory. This thesis has its focus on the privatization, that also can be referred to as a piratization of Russia. The purpose of the thesis is to explain what went wrong with the privatization, and also why it went wrong. A few men, called oligarchs, got their hands on great wealth which has lead to an abuse of power.

The similarity between the Russian and the Indian, in a Cold War context, may be ambiguous considering the ethnic-social variables and the period in time from where the Indians relate. However, by analyzing these, as well as other, characters in the exhibition of movies, we could learn something about the ideology of the time from which the movies derive.This study examines ideology and movies in the Cold War era and concludes that the Indian, for example, may be representing the values of the common public enemy, originating from the Cold War ideology. The movies examined, regardless of influence of distinct Cold War themes or lack of such themes, carry attributes that give evidence of typical Cold War ideology. The fear of communism and common enemies connected to a Cold War context, the thought of America as the land of the free ? with the horizon in the ending of the movies as metaphoric to freedom ? and the moral rhetoric that connects to the American thought of a duty as a global savior, are all signs of the Cold War ideology.Even though the messages are somewhat clearer and more distinct in the movies with Cold War motifs, the fact that ideology is projected through other movies as well should be considered essential for the continuing study of movies as cultural artefacts..

The Baltic Sea is threatened by eutrophication that largely is due to nutrient leaching from farmland within the catchment area. To solve this problem the surrounding countries cooperate within various configurations such as HELCOM and the EU-financed project Baltic Compass. Poor manure management in Russia has been discussed frequently the last couple of years. A literature review of different types of reports and legal acts is the core of this degree project which has been performed in connection to two ongoing research projects financed by EU (Baltic Compass) and SIDA. It is supplemented with interviews with Swedish agricultural consultants and travel reports from two occasions when I had the opportunity to discuss with Russians active within the agricultural sector. Different hypotheses were investigated and discussed. The environmental debate in Russia is quiet and there is a widespread approach that economic profit always trumps environmental concern ? a Soviet heritage that influence the Russian agriculture considerably. The Russian legal acts on stable manure management focus mainly on sanitary questions and only secondary on nutrient leaching.

The names of railway stations and halts along the earliest railway lines on Lithuanian territory have been studied, i.e. along those railway lines built between 1861 and 1873. Especially, attention has been drawn to names that are not obvious regarding the geographical location of the station or halt. Some 50 percent of the names are showing some kind of irregularity in this respect. Most common (about 30 examples) are stations or halts that are serving a population centre situated at some distance from the station, but still bearing the name of that population centre.

This essay constitutes a qualitative case study about democratization theory and the middle class in Russia. This is a very important case to study, especially because of the geographic position of the country as well as the economic importance Russia has as a part of the G8. In the essay the author seeks to answer the question whether the lack of a significant middle class in Russia can be a part of the explanation to the absence of a well functioning democracy in the country. Several democratization theories are presented. The most important being Ruth Berins Collier's theories about ins and outs plus the elite- or working class as the initiator of democratization processes.

This Masters thesis is a historiographic study, which aim is to investigate how the Brezhnev administration 1964-82 describes the events taking place during the soviet cultural struggle 1917-32. The investigation is limited to how some of the literary groups, organisations and currents as well as a small number of Russian writers are viewed by the administration. The third and last edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which is considered as equivalent with the soviet official view, is used as source. The analysis made in this thesis is divided in two parts; the text analysis of the writers biographies is compared with the result of a discourse analysis, whose target is some of the literary groups, organisations and currents during the topical period. The discourse analysis is a pre-analysis, but its conclusions also have a value in itself.

The topic of this essay is the strategic importance of the Golan Heights during the period 1967-1973, specifically targeting the following questions;-          Why were the heights strategically important?-          What are the gains of either of the states in controlling the Golan Heights?A theoretical framework based on Jerker Widén´s and Jan Ångström´s Militärteorins grunder (The fundamentals in Military Theory) and its chapter regarding the strategic context will be used as an analytical framework.The framework has been applied on the specific conditions of the Golan Heights during a given and limited period of time; stretching from 1967 to 1973, however, the study will not deal with the war of attrition in 1970 as the impact on the Golan Heights and the surrounding geographical strategically important area was limited if at all. The two wars waged during this particular time are used in an attempt to give a somewhat objective picture of the strategic importance of the area.The conclusions are that the importance of the Golan heights during the selected period was significant as the Golan Heights provided a ?strategic lock? both ways and provides a favourable area to deploy artillery, intelligence and surveillance sensors..

This thesis is a comparative analysis of language policy in the Post-Soviet states Ukraine and Kazakhstan, wherein the states are seen as rational actors using language as an instrument in the nation-building process. With a take-off point in an underframe of theories on the nation, national identity, instrumentalism, power and the particular role of language in the nation-building process, this thesis shows that language is a key instrument used by the two states.The Ukrainian and Kazakhian language policies create and put across a certain image of the nation, by emphasising the titular languages as symbols of the new states. The line of argument in the language policy is a balance act between large-scale promotion of titular languages and a careful and inclusive attitude towards the Russian language. The biggest differences are that Ukraine, compared to Kazakhstan, has a more comprehensive and consequent language policy with a deeply rooted historic rhetoric. The most obvious instruments of the states in language policy is censuses, corpus-planning and the state choosing one official language..

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to study how Catalans´ identifications, with respect to their city (Barcelona), their region (Catalonia), their country (Spain) and Europe, are related to each other. Furthermore it deals with whether they use cultural or civic notations when they speak of their identification with the different territorial levels.The thesis is based on a qualitative method with interviews with ten Catalans living in Barcelona, aged from 18 to 58. The result showed that Catalans´ identifications with different territorial levels vary in how they relate to each other. This variation can be classified using three models, namely; ?The Russian doll model? which implies that the identities are ranked hierarchically, ?cross-cutting? that is people can identify themselves with the different levels depending on various situations, and also ?The marble cake model? which means that the different identities are so intertwined that they cannot be separated.

This bachelors thesis examines how av new musicfestival in Umea is communicated on thefestivals website and how the communication is beeing percepted by people who have boughttickets to the festival and people who have chosen not to. The material is based on qualitativeinterviews with theese people and a discourse analysis of the website. The methods beeingused in this thesis are discourse analysis and qualitative interviews. The interviews focuses ontwo groups, people who have bought tickets to the festival and the ones who has not. Theresults of the analysis shows that the website uxufestival.se communicates the vision of aunique festival who brings people together.

Augusti 2008, Ryssland går in i Georgien med en överväldigande militär styrka i syfte att som mansäger, avbryta folkrättsliga kränkningar i utbrytarrepublikerna Syd Ossetien och Abkhazien. Men var det verkligen det som var huvudsyftet med operationen? Eller var Georgienkriget Rysslands tillfälle att för omvärlden visa att Ryssland återigen är en stormakt? Nästan två år senare släpps en ny militärdoktrin, Den Ryska Federationens Militärdoktrin 2010, finns det ett samband mellan det överraskande Georgienkriget och den nya ryska doktrinen? Det främsta syftet med den här uppsatsen är att genom att utgå ifrån två av de taktiska grundprinciperna, kraftsamling och vilseledning, undersöka om det faktiskt finns ett samband mellan kriget och doktrinen. Finns det händelser under kriget och formuleringar i doktrinen vilka överensstämmer med definitionen av Kraftsamling och Vilseledning som tyder på ett samband däremellan? Det är det jag avser att svara på med denna uppsats.

The background to the study was to find out the view of three teachers on students reading comprehension. What strategies and methods are used by the teachers in the classroom when working with reading comprehension? How interaction between teacher and students happen when working with reading comprehension.   The theoretical research approach is based on a sociocultural perspective. Sociocultural perspective maintains that social interaction and cultural institutions, such as schools and classrooms have important roles to play in an individual?s cognitive growth and development.

The Arctic region is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals and fish. Climate change causes the Arctic ice melt, making resource extraction possible as well as opening up new transport routes through the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage. This has led to competition and cross-border strife among the Arctic States. The two largest states in the Arctic are Russia and Canada, which are also members of the Arctic Council. Russia and Canada are at the moment involved in several disputes regarding the Arctic territory where the ownership of the North Pole is one example.

During several years we have been able to follow the victories and disappointments of Ludmila Engqvist through the scrutinising eye of the media. This essay will deal with how media?s picture perception of Ludmila Engqvist has changed by analysing articles from the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen from 1996 to 2001. Why and how the media?s picture has changed will be analysed through the perspectives of Ludmila Engqvist being an elite athlete, immigrant and woman.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.