Russia: 30 years of Transformation - in person talk by David Lane

The talk will review the progress of transition in Russia over the past thirty years and pose the question of what might follow.

The unintended consequences of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika led, in 1992, to the dismemberment of the USSR into fifteen independent states. Concurrently, communist ideology was renounced and Soviet institutions were dismantled. The new leadership in the Russian Federation under Boris Yeltsin had choices between ways to make the transition to a post-communist political and economic order.

What ensued was ‘chaotic capitalism’ and a failed state. International politics have played a major role in defining the course and nature of the transformation.

Consequently, President Putin has instituted a form of ‘electoral collectivist authoritarianism’. While Gorbachev and Yeltsin were positively regarded by the Western powers, Putin’s policies have led to confrontation and to a new Cold War. I conclude the talk by outlining three possible future scenarios.

David Lane was educated at Birmingham and Oxford Universities. Currently, he is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. He is a vice-president of the SCRSS.

He has written extensively on the USSR and post-socialism, Marxism and socialism, industrial societies and the world economy, elites and classes. Publications include: Changing Regional Alliances for China and the West (With G. Zhu) (2018); The Eurasian Project in Global Perspective (2016); (With V. Samokhvalov) The Eurasian Project and Europe (2015); Elites and Identity in the Transformation of State Socialism (2014); The Capitalist Transformation of State Socialism (2014); recent articles have been published in Critical Sociology, The Third World Quarterly, International Critical Thought and Mir Rossii.

NB: This event takes place in-person at the SCRSS centre in Brixton. The SCRSS is exploring options for simultaneous Zoom streaming and for making a recording of this event available for viewing online. Check SCRSS website for details closer to the event date.