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Communist and Post-Communist Studies
@cpcs.bsky.social
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Communist and Post-Communist Studies (CPCS) is an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal featuring comparative research on current and historical developments in the communist and post-communist world.
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Communist and Post-Communist Studies @cpcs.bsky.social · Dec 5
The December issue is out! With research articles on:

🔸New Year speeches as post-Soviet political communication
🔸populism & conspiracy theory in Serbia
🔸China's history in Russian textbooks
🔸WWII memorials & electoral geography in Croatia
🔸civic activism in Bosnia & Poland
[1/2]
Table of Contents for the December 2025 issue of CPCS
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

The Way Home, or the Way to Prison? Gender Legacies and Anti-War Protest in Russia
by Alexandra Novitskaya, Janet Elise Johnson, Valerie Sperling, & Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom

online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
This article analyzes the activist rhetoric of Put′ Domoi (The Way Home)—a prominent, Russia-based public protest movement consisting primarily of women whose family members were “mobilized” into fighting in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Using a detailed framework that describes Russia’s gender-related ideologies under Putin, we analyze Put′ Domoi’s activist rhetoric focusing primarily on the first six months of their public activism (August 2023–March 2024). We examine how the activists struggled to frame their demands in a way that would afford them some protection from repression while also allowing them to challenge the regime’s open-ended military “mobilization.” We find that this movement employed a gender-compliant framework similar to that of many grassroots wives-and-mothers movements fighting authoritarian violence within and outside of Russia, but with particular Soviet roots. Over time, Put′ Domoi became increasingly frustrated with the regime’s response to their demands and increasingly critical of the war in general. This analysis helps explain why Put′ Domoi did not immediately face repression despite engaging in regular public protests critical of Russia’s war-related policies. Our case study of Put′ Domoi also sheds light on how these kinds of women’s movements navigate the complicated repressive terrain of authoritarian rule through gender-related framing tactics.
January 14, 2026 at 12:24 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Recently published:

Power Preservation, No Matter the Means: Populism and Conspiracy Theory as Instruments of Political Consolidation in Serbia
by Vladimir Vučković, Branislav Radeljić, & Vladimir Đorđević

Free to access for one week! 👇

online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
This article examines the Serbian political leadership—the president and government alike—by addressing the dominant political figures’ narratives. We communicate with the theoretical aspects in the study of populism and conspiracy theories as this nexus enables us to examine the specific nature of the domestic politics in Serbia. In our view, the ruling elite complements its populist discourse with conspiracy theory to ensure its survival in power, by regularly generating fear about the threat posed to Serbian statehood and lack of apprehension for Belgrade’s geopolitical preferences and exploration of foreign policy alternatives. Our analysis fills a major gap in the literature, since there has been only sporadic research on this topic and none of it has focused on the merger of populism and conspiracy theory. The findings we have reached—largely those of the elite’s self-victimization narratives and their dissemination of anti-Western sentiments—provide for a fresh contribution to the debate concerning the power struggle and the state of democracy in Serbia, especially given the fact that the key political stakeholders draw heavily on pro-regime media outlets to readily disseminate their self-serving accounts.
January 13, 2026 at 3:17 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles (🔆Open Access🔆):

Finding Space for Activism: Understanding Youth Activists in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in the Wake of Russia’s War Against Ukraine
by Bakhytzhan Kurmanov, Brian Smith, and Caress Schenk

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
This article examines the reactions of young people and, more specifically, youth activists in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, we demonstrate how online involvement bleeds into the offline political activity of young people related to the war in complex ways. While Central Asians rely on online activity to discover and interact with news about the war, the war has catalyzed a variety of political activities both online and offline, though the war is but one of many political traumas that have elicited responses from society. Our interviews with young activists reveal common themes across Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In both cases, the war brought about conflicts within the activist community and vibrant discussions in the arenas of language politics and decolonization. This newfound youth activism may not result in increased formal political participation (e.g., voting, protesting), but it could have a lasting impact on the everyday contribution and efficacy of young people in their societies.
January 8, 2026 at 2:26 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Recently published:
Dear Compatriots: New Year Speeches as Sites for Post-Soviet Political Communication Available
by Adam Lenton & Akbota Karibayeva

Free to access for one week! 👇

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
This article offers a comparative analysis of post-Soviet leaders’ new year addresses to the nation. As highly prominent, programmatic speeches, such texts provide a unique and valuable basis for examining insights from literatures on authoritarian political communication and regime legitimation. Collecting 152 new year addresses from across the region (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan), we find systematic differences in leaders’ political communication depending on the openness of the regime, both in ordinary times and during global crises such as COVID-19. Autocrats’ acknowledgment of mass unrest, however, is less consistent, which we argue reflects broader uncertainties in the political as seen in our case comparisons of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Across all our cases we find leaders increasingly using new year addresses to articulate claims about the identity of the state and the nation, (re)interpreting its history, past achievements, as well as defining a vision of the future. Moreover, these visions coalesce around unitary understandings of the nation, replacing multiethnic narratives of the immediate post-Soviet period. The unique status of the new year as one of the most enduring “invented traditions” of the Soviet Union provides an important lens to assess continuity and change across the region.
January 6, 2026 at 2:22 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
The December issue is out! With research articles on:

🔸New Year speeches as post-Soviet political communication
🔸populism & conspiracy theory in Serbia
🔸China's history in Russian textbooks
🔸WWII memorials & electoral geography in Croatia
🔸civic activism in Bosnia & Poland
[1/2]
Table of Contents for the December 2025 issue of CPCS
December 5, 2025 at 12:25 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

From Anti-Politician Technocratism to Anti-Immigrant Nativism?: The Changes in Populist Communication of Former Czech PM Andrej Babiš
by Vladimír Naxera

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...

#populism #nativism #technocratism #czechia
This article focusing on the communications of former Czech PM Andrej Babiš is a contribution to the debate on the transformation of the communications of populist actors. Using a content analysis of all Facebook communication in the profiles of Babiš and his ANO movement in the pre-election periods between 2013 and 2023, the text reveals a gradual transformation of communication. While the level of populism in communication remained relatively high throughout the decade (with a notable peak in the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections, after four years of government engagement), other (ideological) features accompanying populism transformed significantly. The initial technocratic, expert, and managerial rhetoric putting in contrast “bad ideological/party politicians” and “good experts and managers” was pragmatically abandoned over time and replaced by a nativist rhetoric placing in contrast “good natives” and “bad incomers,” that is, immigrants (and not immediately after the outbreak of the so-called migration crisis). In this respect, the transformation of the communication of ANO and Babiš differs from the communication of a large part of other dominant Central European populist actors.
November 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Communist and Post-Communist Studies
aseees.bsky.social
Thank you to our 2025 ASEEES Convention Sponsors!
#ASEEES25
buff.ly/XBRZyBW
November 21, 2025 at 10:13 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
CPCS is proud to be a Bronze level sponsor for #ASEEES25.

If you have a manuscript that might fit the journal, Editor-in-Chief @jpaulgoode.bsky.social will be at the conference and happy to meet with prospective authors.

aseees.org/convention/2...
2025 Annual Convention | Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies
One of the core activities of the Association is the annual convention. Held in the fall in a different city in North America, this international forum makes possible a broad […]
aseees.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:17 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

Ownership Society of the Proletariat: Housing Privatization and Public Support in China
by Zhiyuan Zhang

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
One big puzzle in China’s market reform is how the government maintained popular support during the rapid socioeconomic transformation. This article argues that while the market transition aggravated economic inequality, the housing privatization reform of the late 1990s, in which public housing was sold at deeply discounted prices, provided a much-needed welfare benefit to the urban residents before a functioning welfare system was established. Using survey data collected in Beijing during the period of housing privatization reform, this study finds that urban residents who purchased public housing reported higher evaluations of China’s market reform and were more satisfied with government performance. The effect was stronger among SOE blue-collar workers, lower-income earners, and those without social insurance. Further analysis shows that the purchase of public housing had a long-lasting effect on shaping pro-market policy preferences among these former proletariats. These findings suggest that housing privatization contributed to a widely dispersed coalition that supported the government’s market-oriented policies, serving as a source of political legitimacy during the period of dramatic changes.
November 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

Institutionalizing Electoral Malpractice: The Case of Multi-Day Voting in Russia
by Grigorii V. Golosov & Lev Osipov

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...

#Russia #elections #authoritarianism
Under authoritarianism, electoral malpractice not only can be manifest in violations prohibited by law, but also occurs under the guise of legality, thereby acquiring an institutionalized character. Multi-day voting in Russia, while portrayed by the authorities as a measure of convenience for the voters, effectively increases the propensity for malpractice by creating permissive environments for electoral fraud and workplace mobilization of voters, which often involves coercion to vote and bribery of electors. The analysis shows that in the 2021 national legislative elections, the pro-government party was indeed the sole beneficiary of multi-day voting in terms of increasing its officially reported vote share. The impact of multi-day voting upon the electoral performance of the permitted opposition parties was uneven, reflecting the differences among the niches occupied by the permitted opposition parties in Russia’s electoral arena.
November 12, 2025 at 12:59 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

Russian Business and the Authoritarian Welfare State: Corporate Social Programs as Legitimation for Companies and the State
by Ulla Pape

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...

#Russia #authoritarianism #welfare #legitimation
Authoritarian regimes widely involve non-state actors in social welfare to increase output legitimacy and regime stability. Despite the volume of corporate social investments, the role of private companies in authoritarian welfare is still poorly understood. This study analyzes the functioning of corporate social programs in the Russian authoritarian welfare state by focusing on corporate grant competitions and corporate volunteering as means of engaging both the local population and the companies’ employees in the regions. Drawing on stakeholder theory, it investigates how companies position themselves as welfare providers and how they legitimize their role with regard to key stakeholders, including state officials, employees, and the local population. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with company representatives and key stakeholders in four Russian regions: Kemerovo, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, Tiumen′, and Volgograd. In addition, corporate social reports from 2018 and information for beneficiaries were evaluated to identify program guidelines, motivations, and stakeholder assessments. The study argues that companies play an important role as welfare providers through the financial support of social organizations and employee initiatives at the regional and the local level. By providing social investments in geographically defined “territories of presence,” Russian companies pursue a double legitimation strategy, both demonstrating their social responsibility and loyalty toward the regime and strengthening authoritarian welfare provision through private social investments. With a detailed analysis of corporate social programs, this study contributes to our understanding of the specific conditions and mechanisms of social policy in authoritarian regimes and the place that companies occupy within it.
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

Melting Points: Furnace Technology at the Crossroads of Socialist and Georgian Imaginaries
by Tamar Qeburia

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
This article examines the historical trajectory of the closed-top electric furnace (CTEF), an industrial technology designed to revolutionize metallurgical smelting in Soviet industrial manufacturing. By tracing the CTEF’s evolution from initial proposal through experimental trials to its ultimate resolution through Japanese technology importation, this study illuminates the inherent contradictions within the Soviet system and situates metallurgical innovation within the broader political context of de-Stalinization. The CTEF project emerged during a critical period when Soviet technological priorities were being redefined, offering an illuminating case study of post-Stalinist scientific enterprise. Through analysis of primary source materials, this work reveals how Georgian scientists strategically navigated the institutional landscape of the era, leveraging Soviet policy frameworks while pursuing professional advancement and cultural aspirations. These scientists legitimized their work not only through economic justifications—particularly the potential for waste gas utilization in the chemical industry—but also by deliberately connecting their innovations to Georgia’s ancient metallurgical heritage. The technological solutions they developed exemplified the socialist approach to science while reflecting systemic contradictions that highlighted the persistent gap between ambitious political directives and practical realities. By focusing on this single industrial innovation, the article provides nuanced insights into the complex negotiations between regional scientific communities, industrial priorities, and central state power within the Soviet Union’s pursuit of technological progress and national development.
November 6, 2025 at 1:41 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

Transformations in Russian Activism: Navigating Identity and Solidarity in Russia’s Anti-War Movement
by Vlada Baranova

#Russia #activism #feminism #decoloniality

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
This article examines the evolving identities and solidarity among Russia’s anti-war movement, particularly focusing on the convergence between feminist and decolonial activism. Using the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) and ethnic or decolonial activists as case studies, the research highlights how solidarity influences the activists’ understanding of their objectives, reshapes identities, and introduces new grassroots coalitions. In the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, these interactions challenge traditional boundaries between movements and foster a growing solidarity. The study draws on diverse data sources, including interviews with FAR activists, interviews with ethnic/decolonial activists, and online ethnography, to explore how discursive shifts, particularly regarding ethnic discrimination and intersectionality, redefine activist identity and solidarity. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of the convergence of decolonial activism and feminism in the context of the war against Ukraine. By analyzing these changes, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of how activist identities and alliances evolve under authoritarian conditions, providing insight into the broader dynamics of civil resistance and identity politics.
November 5, 2025 at 3:01 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week, from the latest issue:

Media Freedom, Bias, and Manipulation in the Eurasian Post-Socialist Space
by Krzysztof Rybinski

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Media Freedom, Bias, and Manipulation in the Eurasian Post-Socialist Space
The article proposes a new machine learning model for assessing media freedom. It postulates that when media are free, and journalists can safely criticize influential politicians, the relative politi...
doi.org
November 4, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Communist and Post-Communist Studies
bkurmanov.bsky.social
Happy to share my new article (open access) with B. Smith and C. Schenk in @cpcs.bsky.social We examine how Russia’s war has shaped youth activism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan finding that young people’s agency and awareness of decolonialism long predated the war. online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
November 4, 2025 at 4:27 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

Witnessing the Crisis: The Political and Ethical Challenges of Migration Regime Activist Research at the Polish-Belarusian Border
by Justyna Straczuk

From the new issue's themed section Emergency Response Research and Documentation.

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Witnessing the CrisisThe Political and Ethical Challenges of Migration Regime Activist Research at the Polish-Belarusian Border
This article analyzes the epistemological and ethical challenges and difficulties of conducting research on the humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border from the dual perspectives of the re...
doi.org
October 28, 2025 at 12:50 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

The Language of the Witness, the Language of the Researcher: Verbal and Nonverbal Communication in “Emergency Research”
by Katarzyna Jędraszczyk

From the themed section on Emergency Response Research and Documentation

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
The Language of the Witness, the Language of the ResearcherVerbal and Nonverbal Communication in “Emergency Research”
When research is conducted involving the collection of testimonies from a wartime, emergency, or crisis situation, the language used by the witness and the researcher is particularly important. The re...
doi.org
October 21, 2025 at 11:29 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

Multiple Positionalities of a Researcher: The Case of Polish Researchers Interviewing Ukrainian War Refugees in Poland
by Elżbieta Kwiecińska & Małgorzata Łukianow

From the themed section on Emergency Response Research and Documentation.

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Multiple Positionalities of a ResearcherThe Case of Polish Researchers Interviewing Ukrainian War Refugees in Poland
In the midst of an ongoing war, oral history interviewers bear a particular responsibility toward vulnerable groups they are working with. As Polish scholars, we were an outside privileged group unaff...
doi.org
October 14, 2025 at 11:52 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

War and Eurasia’s Ethnic Boundaries: Chinese Intellectuals on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
by Ed Pulford

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
This article focuses on responses to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine among establishment intellectuals in the People’s Republic of China, exploring how shifting geographies of power are reshaping ideas around ethnoracial identity in Eurasia. President Vladimir Putin justified the war, arguing that Ukrainians had no legitimate existence separate from Russians. In China where, despite long-standing opposition to countries “interfering in internal affairs” of others, officialdom has broadly supported Putin, intellectuals have engaged seriously with ideas around Russian and Ukrainian “sameness” as grounds for invasion. These distinctive PRC-based perspectives, sampled over the war’s first year from Aisixiang.com, a repository for intellectual commentary on current events, have significant ramifications for understandings of ethnic difference in the “global order.” From this material emerges a world in which certain “great” states possess the right to project possibly mutually incommensurable ethnicizing paradigms domestically and internationally. Tellingly, in the Sino-Russian context, while Putin condemns Lenin’s historic state-building role in “creating” Ukraine, the PRC party-state’s own Leninist legacy (including its categorization of ethnic groups) is irreconcilable with such views. Amid increasingly heated global debates around geopolitics, ethnicity, and race where PRC-based voices are central, scholars must attend to translingual framings of difference and the actions they justify.
October 9, 2025 at 6:19 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free for one week! The next article in Emergency Response Research and Documentation in Comparative Perspective:

Ukrainian Researchers in a War Documentation Project: Intertwined Experiences and Methodologies
by Natalia Otrishchenko, Artem Kharchenko, Valentyna Shevchenko

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Ukrainian Researchers in a War Documentation ProjectIntertwined Experiences and Methodologies
This article covers the experiences of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, most of whom were internally displaced scholars, in one of the projects documenting the Russian war in Ukraine. It refl...
doi.org
October 7, 2025 at 11:36 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
Free to access for one week:

Introduction to the Special Section on "Emergency Response Research and Documentation in a Comparative Perspective"
by Natalia Otrishchenko & Anna Wylegała

👉 doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
The escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine—an attack launched throughout almost all of its territory in February 2022—has triggered numerous initiatives aiming at documentation of war experiences through methods of interviewing. The war and refugee crisis in Central and Eastern Europe brings us closer to similar situations in different regions of the world, which also have been documented and researched. Our special section explores various methodologies of emergency response projects and traces how different positionalities are combined and contested during the unfolding conflict. While we focus on the Ukrainian case, our aim is to engage in dialogue with various geographies of the post-communist world, where researchers are (or were) exposed to straightforward challenges in terms of safety and security. We invited scholars who studied their own societies or communities they are related to; therefore, the duality between “insider” and “outsider” as well as the very concept of “field” as something external is challenged in their writing. Assembled articles make visible tensions inherent in the projects that document the present moment: between different roles researchers have, different ethical justifications and academic standards, different audiences and social groups scholars engage with. Following the question that Ghislaine Boulanger posed, “How do we fit our understanding of the individual survivor into the larger picture of a catastrophe without losing sight of individual struggle?”, authors show various possibilities of analytical work with collected materials and ways to conceptualize the experiences of both the interviewers and the interviewees who live through violent conflicts.
September 30, 2025 at 11:29 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
The September issue is now online! Featuring a special section on "Emergency Response Research and Documentation in Comparative Perspective," with guest ed.s Natalia Otrishchenko and Anna Wylegała

The section draws on the experience of Polish and Ukrainian research teams following Feb 2022.
(1/2)
Table of Contents for September issue of Communist and Post-Communist Studies
September 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
🚨Announcing the CPCS Global Collaborative Research Award. 🚨

The award is unique in recognizing and promoting cross-regional collaboration in published research on the communist or post-communist world.

More details are 👇
online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/pages/g...
Global Collaboration Research Award | Communist and Post-Communist Studies | University of California Press
Global Collaboration Research Award | Communist and Post-Communist Studies | University of California Press Global Collaborative Research Award   Description   Communist and Post-Communist Studies (CPCS) and the University of California Press value the diversification and platforming of voices and perspectives of scholars from all regions who contribute to, and engage with, international research on the communist and post-communist world. In furthering this goal,...
online.ucpress.edu
September 18, 2025 at 10:49 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles (Open Access):

Proxy Games and Freezing Conflict: Trilateral Identifications, Fear, and Agency in Russia-Georgia Relations Post-Crimea
by Julie Wilhelmsen & Salome Minesashvili

online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
Proxy Games and Freezing ConflictTrilateral Identifications, Fear, and Agency in Russia-Georgia Relations Post-Crimea
This article argues that conflicts can be frozen through engagement in mutual trilateral identification games that marginalize lower-level political entities while elevating their danger through ident...
online.ucpress.edu
September 17, 2025 at 11:50 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

Media Literacy and the Interpretation of the War—A Study of Uzbekistani Youth’s Perceptions on the Russia-Ukraine War
by Mukhammadsodik Donaev

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Media Literacy and the Interpretation of the War—A Study of Uzbekistani Youth’s Perceptions on the Russia-Ukraine War
This study examines how media literacy influences the perceptions of young people in Uzbekistan regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. With the media’s pervasive role in shaping public understanding of glo...
doi.org
September 15, 2025 at 1:13 PM