PREFACE . . 7
1. REGIONAL IDENTITIES AND MESO-MEGA AREA DYNAMICS IN SLAVIC EURASIA: FOCUSED ON EASTERN EUROPE . . 19
2. ON SAILS AND GALES, AND SHIPS DRIVING IN VARIOUS DIRECTIONS: POST-SOVIET UKRAINE AS A TEST CASE FOR THE MESO-AREA CONCEPT . . 42
3. THE STUDY OF MESO- AND MEGA-AREA DYNAMICS: METHODOLOGICAL AND EMPIRICAL CONSIDERATIONS . . 69
4. TATARS AS MESO-NATION . . 83
5. MOLDOVA AND THE POLITICS OF MESO-AREAS . . 93
6. UKRAINIAN GAS TRADERS, DOMESTIC CLANS AND RUSSIAN FACTORS: A TEST CASE FOR MESO-MEGA AREA DYNAMICS . . 113
7. WILL THE UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COUNTERBALANCE SUPERPRESIDENTIALISM? . . 137
8. PECULIARITIES OF THE INTEGRATION PROCESS BETWEEN BELARUS AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ASPECTS . . 155
9. THE REPRESENTATION OF THE BELARUSIAN LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY BELARUSIAN LITERATURE . . 177
10. DAGESTAN'S APPROACH TO THE ISLAMIC MEGA-AREA? THE POTENTIALS AND LIMITS OF JIHADISM . . 195
11. ALIEN BUT LOYAL: REASONS FOR THE "UNSTABLE STABILITY" OF DAGESTAN, AN OUTPOST OF SLAVIC EURASIA . . 221
12. BETWEEN IMPERIAL TEMPTATION AND ANTI-IMPERIAL FUNCTION IN EASTERN EUROPEAN POLITICS: POLAND FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY . . 247
13. THE MOST EUROPEAN SCIENCE IN RUSSIA: DEFINING THE EMPIRE ANTHROPOLOGICALLY . . 285
14. FROM ETHNOCENTRIC TO Civic HISTORY: CHANGES IN CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN HISTORICAL STUDIES . . 311
15. EMPIRE OR POST-EMPIRE? THE CONCEPT OF "LONG CENTURY" AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF GLOBALIZATION . . 335
16. ABKHAZIA UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE DIVISION OF THE WORLD . . 349
17. IS IT EASY TO GLOBALIZE THE WORLD? THE EXPANSION OF THE SCHENGEN TERRITORY AND FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN A WIDER EUROPE . . 372
18. OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITS OF SELF-CREATION AND IDENTITY POLITICS: TATARSTAN'S PARADIPLOMATIC PROJECT . . 387