<blockquote>So here is a not entirely frivolous suggestion: How about skipping the political science textbooks when it comes to trying to understand the former Soviet Union and instead opening up the pages of Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky?</blockquote>
via <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/27/how_gogol_explains_the_post_soviet_world_and_chekhov_and_dostoyevsky?page=full">How Gogol* Explains the Post-Soviet World (*And Chekhov and Dostoyevsky) - By Thomas de Waal | Foreign Policy</a>.