The Soviet Union has been barred from offering bonds in the U.S. market under the Johnson Debt Default Act because, after the 1917 revolution, the Soviet Union refused to honor its outstanding debts.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Summit Watch: Tough Questions For President Bush

Georgia's transition from a former Soviet republic into a non-Soviet one began with the Rose revolution of November 2003, in which the 36-year-old Mikhail Saakashvili and his friends pushed aside the 75-year-old Eduard Shevardnadze.

ECONOMIST: Georgia

The range of material is impressive: the chapters deal with the growth of European cities before the industrial revolution, corruption in post-Soviet Russia, privatisation in Eastern Europe, local government in the United States, and more.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus: The grabbing hand | The

In 1992 he became Russia's prime minister, and control of Gazprom was assumed by his deputy, Rem Vyakhirev, a chain-smoking Soviet-style bureaucrat, whose first name stood for Revolution, Engels, Marx.

FORBES: Energy Tsar