Includes bibliographical references and index.

Modern economic growth -- Economic determinism and the twentieth-century experience -- The general and the particular in modern economic growth -- Traditional agrarian society -- A different path -- The phenomenon of antiquity -- Capitalism and the rise of Europe -- Particular features of Russia's economic development -- The collapse of an empire -- The postsocialist crisis and recovery growth -- The dynamics of population and international migration -- The state burden on the economy -- The formation and crisis of systems of social safeguards -- The evolution of education and healthcare systems -- The transformation of the system for manning the armed forces -- On the stability and flexibility of political systems.