This article examines politics "the sources, structure, and operation of power - in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. The Soviet political system was a grand experiment in an alternative political and social system of applying Enlightenment principles and socialist ideology. Yet, this system generated contradictions that would be its undoing: an economic centralization that bred stagnation, a social contract trading political loyalty for accountability, and institutionalization of ethnic identities. Boris Yeltsin's political and economic reforms unraveled much institutional structure, providing the impetus and opportunity for the rise of a new elite (oligarchs) and then the reimposition of the state power under the leadership of Vladimir Putin and a new elite, the siloviki. Yet, the new model of state-centered corporatism faces challenges and pressure from economic strains, possible political opposition, and growing tensions with the West.