Table of Contents

Introduction to Rashomon's Tale: Perspectives on a Society from Within and from Without Thinkers from Overseas: How Did Western Experts Understand and Describe the Soviet Union over its 74-year History? Homegrown Russian Intellectuals: On the Existence of Credible and Unreliable Internal Sources of Elite Information about Soviet Realities A Mirror from Afar: American Public Opinion about the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the 1980s Self-fulfilling Reflections: Soviet Public Opinion about the Homeland, in Attitudes and Images Conclusion and Discussion: Limits and Potentials to De-ideologizing Studies of Foreign Countries, and Reconstructing Images of a Society Held by its Denizens

About the Author

ERIC SHIRAEV is a a Political Psychologist at George Mason University, USA.

EERO CARROLL has held post-doctoral appointments at SOFI, Stockholm University (1999-2006), the National Institute for Working Life (2006-07) and the Institute for Futures Studies (2007-08), all in Stockholm, Sweden.

VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University, USA.