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The class conflict behind Russia’s war

Note from LeftEast editors: In this mini-series we reprint two essays first published in Alameda Institute’s Dossier, The War in Ukraine and the Question of Internationalism. We provide the table of contents for reference and further reading. Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine earlier this year, analysts across the political spectrum have struggled to identify exactly […]

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Russia’s war in Ukraine may finally end the post-Soviet condition

Note from LeftEast Editors: This article was first published by The Parliament Magazine. We reprint with permission. While the world is entering a major political and economic crisis as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, it may put an end to the long-standing crisis of the post-Soviet condition. The war could end it either by […]

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A Russian Invasion of Ukraine Could Destabilize Russia’s Political Order

The U.S. and U.K. officials and media have long been warning against the “imminent” Russian invasion of Ukraine. Whatever the prospects of such an invasion are, it also raises an important question about the character of the Russian political regime and how the invasion may change it.

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Ukrainians Are Far From Unified on NATO. Let Them Decide for Themselves

Note from LeftEast editors. This is a reprint, the article originally appeared in Truthout on December 28, 2021. After weeks of media scare about a purported Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the conflict may get a chance to be solved in a negotiated way. The public conversation on the current escalation of the Russian-Western conflict […]

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Ukraine in the vicious circle of the post-Soviet crisis of hegemony

Note from LeftEast editors: This is a slightly edited version of an earlier published text in German: Ishchenko, V. (October 15, 2021). Die Ukraine im Teufelkreis der post-sowjetischen Hegemonie-Krise. Ukraine-Analysen, 256, 8-10. After the 30 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine may give a unique perspective on the post-Soviet condition in general […]

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From Ukraine with Comparison: Emerging Notes on Belarus

We share here notes by LeftEast contributing editor Volodymyr Ishchenko on Belarus from  August 10th (Part 1) and 19th (Part 2),  2020. Part 1: SOME QUICK COMPARATIVE NOTES ON BELARUS (August 10, 2020) 1. Both Lukashenka and Tsikhanouskaia claim ~80% voters. The official results look suspicious as they are improbably stable. Lukashenka gets ~80% of […]

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Contradictions of Post-Soviet Ukraine and Failure of Ukraine’s New Left

Dossier 1989 Thirty Years Later: Several profound contradictions have defined the dynamics of Ukrainian economy, politics and society since the collapse of the Soviet Union: the contradiction between transnational and local capital, those between factions of the local capital, Ukrainian national identity contradictions, geopolitical contradictions with Russia, the US, and EU, and contradictions between civil society, the active public, and Ukrainian society at large. I will first expose them, and then discuss how the Ukrainian new left has been failing to respond to these contradictions with a project for Ukraine’s alternative development.

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A Comedian in a Drama

This article was first published in Jacobin. In Sunday’s election Ukrainian voters dealt a decisive rebuttal to the post-Maidan establishment. Yet well-organized nationalist forces represent a time bomb under the new president-elect. American readers won’t be too surprised by a tale of an inexperienced candidate winning against the establishment’s pick. But in the case of […]

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A comedian could be Ukraine’s next president. How did that happen?

This article by Volodymyr Ishchenko, a member of LeftEast’s editorial collective, was originally published in The Guardian. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has united a polarised country by rejecting angry nationalism – but his politics offer no panacea. A politically inexperienced comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is in the lead after the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine – and […]

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Denial of the Obvious: the Far Right in the Maidan Protests and Their Danger Today

We are publishing this article in collaboration with Vox Ukraine. Recently the massive rallies of the far right parties, the powerful public presentation of the National Militia affiliated to Azov’s “National Corps” party, escalating attacks by extreme right groups against leftist, feminist, LGBT, human rights events brought Ukrainian radical nationalists back into the center of […]