Deadline: February 14, 2025
Course date: July 21–25, 2025
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has heightened the geopolitical importance of the region, catalyzing significant shifts in Eastern Europe and Eurasia – including Russia itself. To fully grasp these changes, a deep understanding of Russia’s post-communist evolution is crucial, coupled with a comparative analytical framework tailored to the region’s complexities.
This course, led by esteemed Eastern European and Russian émigré scholars, will explore the political, economic, and social dynamics that have shaped Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, extending to the present ramifications of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Participants will engage in lectures and discussions to analyze Russia’s development trajectory, examining concepts like informality, patronal autocracy, and relational economy to assess the trends of democratization and de-democratization. Transcending the conventional “hybrid regime” paradigm of political science, this course introduces participants to new interdisciplinary approaches informed by the Eurasian literature on the region.
The course structure revolves around thematic exploration across five days:
- Day 1: Theoretical introduction and clarification of fundamental concepts.
- Day 2: Analysis of the regime change and the rise of the Putin regime.
- Day 3: Study of Russia’s economic system and oligarchy.
- Day 4: Exploration of the evolving role of ideology in Russia.
- Day 5: Comparative analysis of Russia’s development and the war-induced changes.
By the end of this course, participants will gain practical skills to critically assess Russia’s evolution and to apply comparative analytical methods to contextualize the country’s contemporary challenges within the broader Eurasian landscape. The course materials, including The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020) and its companion, A Concise Field Guide to Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2022) will provide insights into the latest developments and scholarly debates, enriching participants’ understanding of the complex and empirically challenging trends in Putin’s Russia and the broader region.