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Bringing the class back in(to what?): A response to F. Poenaru

In his recent analysis of events in Ukraine, Florin Poenaru raises several points whose relevance goes well beyond the specific situation in that country. They speak to important problems that concern the (re-)building of the revolutionary Left in post-socialist Eastern Europe more broadly. This piece responds to some of these points in an effort to […]

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Ukraine’s Protest Movement: Is a ‘Left Sector’ Possible?

Political analysis from Ilya Budraitskis written as he visited Kiev in the midst of revolution. Back in mid-December, our estimate of Ukraine’s political crisis as a “revolutionary situation” resulted in a lot of critical reviews.  Further, the use of the word “revolution” in the context of Ukraine was condemned as a kind of sacrilege, because […]

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Manifesto: 10 Тheses of the Leftist Opposition in Ukraine

A note from the editorial board of LeftEast:  In the view of LeftEast editors, this manifesto, while representing a minoritarian position within the Ukrainian left, is a very serious and considered document that deserves a wide audience. We are posting it to add nuance to the positions represented thus far on our pages. Editors at […]

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Ukraine: Days of Decisions, Days of Struggle

The political face of the Kiev protests causes grave pessimism. But a revolution is a revolution and the left has no right to stay on the side, says Ilya Budraitskis. Originally published in Russian in http://openleft.ru/?p=682 What is happening in Ukraine right now increasingly corresponds to the classical definition of a revolutionary situation. The mass […]

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The political logic of Russia’s imperialism

Volodymyr Artiukh presented this text at the conference ‘New Times? Confronting the Escalating Crises of Capitalism’ in Budapest 26-27 May, organized by the Karl Polanyi Research Center for Global Social Studies and the Commission of Global Transformations and Marxian Anthropology-IUAES in cooperation with the Working Group for Public Sociology ‘Helyzet’, ‘Capitalism Nature Socialism’, ‘Focaal – Journal […]

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Can Russia’s opposition come together to fight the Kremlin’s pension reform?

The article originally appeared in OpenDemocracy-Russia & Beyond. While popular opinion is dead against the Russian government’s continued neoliberal line in social policy, opposition groups are competing for influence and electorate. Translated from the original Russian by Thomas Campbell. Now that the State Duma has passed the first reading of draft legislation reforming Russia’s pension system, […]

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Intelligentsia as a style: social protest, organic intellectuals and the post-Soviet condition

Of all the concepts worth re-examining at the cusp between the 2000s and 2010s in Russia, it is the concept of the “intelligentsia” that likely takes one of the most important places. On its own, this boundary marks the transition from the post-Soviet state of affairs to the still very vague manifestations of the post-post-Soviet. […]