Introduction -- RUSSIAN FEDERATION: The land and the people -- History -- Communist era -- Stalin's cultural counter-revolution of the 1930's -- The post-Stalin era -- The Brezhnev era -- Government transition -- The Gorbachëv era -- An independent Russia is born -- The Putin presidency -- Foreign policy -- Government of the Russian Federation -- Constitution of the Russian Federation -- Culture -- The changing economy -- THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES: Collapse of the Soviet Union -- Commonwealth of Independent States -- Economy under the CIS -- Some regional problems of the CIS -- Western Republics: Belarus -- Ukraine -- Moldova -- Transcaucasian Republics: Armenia -- Azerbaijan -- Georgia -- Central Asian Republics: Kazakhstan -- Kyrgyzstan -- Tajikistan -- Turkmenistan -- Uzbekistan.