Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies

The essay traces the origins and development of Soviet area studies from their inception in the early 1940s to the present. The first part examines the institutional framework and the funding sources for Soviet and post-Soviet area studies. The second part concentrates on the connection between area studies and the disciplines. Next, the authors consider intellectual trends and map the major changes that have taken place in the conceptualization of Soviet area studies from the Second World War to the collapse of the USSR. The final section provides an overview of the formation of post-Soviet area studies. The focus of the inquiry is Soviet and post-Soviet area studies in the United States. The paper argues that the institutional context for the study of the region has not changed dramatically since the collapse of communism (despite some changes in nomenclature and the inclusion of "Eurasian" studies). By contrast, the intellectual agenda in both Soviet and post-Soviet studies and the disciplinary distribution of specialists have undergone significant modifications during the past decade.