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cpcs.bsky.social
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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cpcs.bsky.social
Recently published:

World War II Memorials and the Electoral Geography of Croatia: A Spatial Analysis
by Marko Grdesic

Free to access for one week!

online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
This contribution examines the relationship between historical monuments and local political identities, by investigating the connection between World War II monuments and the electoral geography of Croatia. Spatial dependence models are used to inspect the link between the presence and condition of World War II monuments and vote shares for different political options. The dataset places more than 1,000 historical monuments into roughly 500 geographical units for a variety of elections and referenda in the last decade. The empirical results point to a strong association between the presence of preserved monuments and electoral results.
January 27, 2026 at 10:56 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Recently published:

Define a Dragon: China’s History Narratives in Contemporary Russian Textbooks as Usable Past
by Marharyta Fabrykant

Free to access for one week!

online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article...
This article is dedicated to the ways China’s history is narrated in contemporary Russian world history textbooks. The study relies on the formal structural version of narrative analysis applied to all three series of textbooks included in the federal list of textbooks recommended for teaching world history in Russia’s secondary and high schools and aims at revealing the internal logic of China’s history narrative and its place in the overarching plot of world history narrative. The research findings show China’s history narrative presented in the Russian textbooks to considerably differ from that prevailing in the Chinese historiography and combine a relatively Eurocentric approach with projections of Russia’s own identity-related issues—technological vs. sociopolitical modernization, historical agency, and opportunities vs. risks of openness to the world. These results show how a foreign country’s history can be turned into a usable past not via shared experience or direct analogy but as an initially neutral material for addressing pivotal issues of one’s own country and ambivalent sides of its national identity.
January 21, 2026 at 1:40 AM
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
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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
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
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 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.
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Table of Contents for September issue of Communist and Post-Communist Studies
September 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
(5/9) Gender balance among authors continues to improve steadily. There was no difference in acceptance rates for manuscripts with male or female corresponding authors.
August 28, 2025 at 1:41 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
(4/9) The highest number of submissions in 2024 were received from:
🔸China (28)
🔸Poland (24)
🔸United Kingdom (15)
🔸United States (14)
🔸Czechia (12)
🔸Russia (9)
🔸Germany (8)
🔸Kazakhstan (8)
August 28, 2025 at 1:41 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
(2/9) 188 manuscripts submitted in 2024
🔸Accepted: 20%
🔸Desk rejected: 33%
🔸Rejected: 15
🔸R&R: 26%
August 28, 2025 at 1:41 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
The CPCS Editor's Report 2025 is now available for download:
drive.google.com/file/d/1qo-S...

A short highlight thread:
🔸2024 Impact Factor ↗️ 1.3
🔸2024 Immediacy Index ↗️ 1.1
🔸2024 Scopus CiteScore ↗️ 2.4

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August 28, 2025 at 1:41 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
Just Published in the June issue:

Forging Democracy in the Flames: Strategies of Polish NGOs during the Full-Scale War in Ukraine
by Paulina Pospieszna & Patrice C. McMahon

Open access: doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...

Abstract:
This study examines democracy promotion during interstate war, focusing on Polish NGO efforts during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. By examining the efforts of Polish NGOs during the ongoing war in Ukraine, the study explores the strategies, areas of focus, and shifts in approaches compared to the pre-war period. The objective is to shed light on the rationale behind democracy promotion; delineate the evolving roles, approaches, and tactics of democracy promoters; and draw lessons learned. Bridging the gap in existing knowledge, the study explores dynamics during active conflict offering perspectives from Polish NGOs that have been engaged in democracy promotion in Ukraine since the 1990s.
July 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
Just Published in the June issue:

Explaining Support for Russian Narratives about the Events in Ukraine among Japanese Scholars and Intellectuals in 2014–19
by Sanshiro Hosaka

Free to access for one week.

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Drawing on the concept of strategic narrative, this article explores how Russia’s issue narratives on the Ukraine events were reproduced by local narrative agents. I conducted content analysis of texts published in Japan from 2014 through 2019, and regression analysis to examine whether authors’ reproduction of Russia’s narratives is correlated to their affiliation with area studies branches (Russian studies, studies of other post-communist countries) and disciplines; epistemic linkage with the Kremlin-sponsored Valdai Discussion Club; and publication political stance (communist, progressive, conservative, neo-right) and types (peer-reviewed journals, think-tank reports, popular magazines).
June 24, 2025 at 11:21 AM
cpcs.bsky.social
New in Advance Articles:

Gender Egalitarianism of Recent Emigrants from Russia: The Effect of Emigration or a Trait of a Social Group?
by Veronica Kostenko, Emil Kamalov, Ivetta Sergeeva

doi.org/10.1525/cpcs...
Despite Russia’s relatively low ranking on gender equality, recent emigrants who left the country after February 2022 exhibit significantly higher levels of gender egalitarianism compared to their counterparts in Russia. This study investigates whether these attitudes are attributable to socio-demographic factors such as education and urban residence, or if deeper ideological and political factors play a role. Using data from the OutRush project on Russian emigration after 2022 and the World Values Survey, we analyze two key questions: Do recent emigrants demonstrate more egalitarian attitudes than socio-demographically similar Russians? Does gender equality of host countries influence emigrants’ attitudes? Our findings suggest that emigrants exhibit higher levels of gender egalitarianism than comparable groups in Russia, even after controlling for socio-demographic predictors. These differences persist after controlling for socioeconomic predictors, reflecting deeply ingrained values that were probably developed by the pre-migration experiences of political opposition actions and social activism. The results challenge theories of rapid acculturation and highlight the role of self-selection as a key factor underlying gender egalitarian attitudes.
June 23, 2025 at 1:47 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
The 2024 Journal Citation Report is out: the Impact Factor for CPCS increased for the 3rd year running, climbing to 1.3. The journal also had a record number of citations (897), and moved from Q3 to Q2 in Political Science and International relations.
June 18, 2025 at 1:52 PM
cpcs.bsky.social
The June issue is online early! With articles on legitimation, techno-populism, & bureaucratic support for war in Russia; Russian narratives on Ukraine in Japan; Polish NGOs response to full-scale war; grassroots mobilization in China; and an historical study of solidarity & Poland's market reforms.
May 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM