The recent history of post-Soviet societies is often described in terms of the transition metaphor. Images of movement as well as changing places and situations were foundational for the social conceptualization of the new nations. The idea of looking for novelty and new beginnings legitimized the dissolution of the USSR as well as many state- and economy-related experiments. This volume describes how the new societies survived this period of regime change, economic crises, internal wars, political drawbacks, and social innovations, and how they are making sense of it. The volume's contributors include Russian, Ukrainian, and German scholars who analyze political, social, and cultural ideologies: Natalia Koulinka, Kostiantyn Fedorenko, Pavel Skigin, Jesko Schmoller, Valentyna Kyselova, Anton Avksentiev, Chris Monday, Egor Isaev, Oleksandr Zabirko, Sergiy Kurbatov, Alla Marchenko, Jennifer J. Carroll, Daria Goriacheva, and Darya Malyutina. "'The best in post-Soviet thought and analysis' would probably not sound too pretentious as a characteristic of this collection of twelve essays, written by authors coming from the newly independent countries of the former Soviet Union. Published originally in one of the most innovative social sciences journals of the region, the essays document, assess, and contextualize the process in which the elites and societies of the post-Soviet states emerge from the shadow of the common political and ideological legacy to chart their own course in the world that rapidly changes around them. This anthology is as much about the understandings of history as it is about the visions of the present and the future, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the region."-Serhii Plokhy, Harvard University