Post-Soviet Vicious Circle: The Crisis of Hegemony & The Crisis of Revolution | Volodymyr Ishchenko скачать в хорошем качестве

Post-Soviet Vicious Circle: The Crisis of Hegemony & The Crisis of Revolution | Volodymyr Ishchenko

Why have so many revolutions in recent decades succeeded in overthrowing governments but failed to deliver democratic consolidation? This lecture addresses that question by turning to the post-Soviet region, one of the most turbulent sites of revolutionary upheaval since the collapse of the USSR. More than a dozen revolutions and repressed uprisings have taken place there, yet none has produced lasting democratization; instead, they have fueled instability and reinforced authoritarian trends. To explain this paradox, I develop the concept of “deficient revolutions,” which take on the form of revolution but lack the counterhegemonic strength needed to build transformative alternatives. Ukraine’s Euromaidan — the largest, longest, and most consequential of these uprisings — demonstrates how such revolutions reproduce and intensify the very political crisis they respond to, through dynamics of non-class polarization and the asymmetrical empowerment of privileged or better-organized groups with unpopular agendas. In making this argument, I highlight the limits of dominant post-Soviet paradigms: democratization, patronal politics, and postcolonialism, all of which falter in light of the outcomes of Euromaidan and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Drawing on Gramsci’s concept of a crisis of hegemony, I situate the post-Soviet experience within the wider global crisis of class politics and revolution. The region thus appears not as a provincial anomaly but as a window into worldwide disintegrative dynamics, where contemporary revolutions are not only symptoms but active drivers of the crisis. 00:00 Introduction: The Crisis of Knowledge 02:44 Analytical Failures in the Russia-Ukraine War 07:52 Crisis of Post-Soviet Research Paradigms (Democratization, Decolonization) 14:25 The Crisis of Hegemony & Counter-Hegemony 23:32 Historical Context: Caesarism & The Interwar Crisis 28:22 Post-Soviet Caesarism: Political Capitalists & Stability 33:39 The Russian Invasion as an Extension of Domestic Coercion 37:35 Deficient Revolutions: Why They Fail to Democratize 45:37 Defining "Deficient Revolutions" & Their Destabilizing Effects 50:07 Case Study: Ukraine’s Euromaidan 57:19 Exclusionary Nationalism & Radicalization in Ukraine 01:02:48 Conclusions: The Global Crisis of Revolution 01:04:15 Q&A: Caesarism vs. Patrimonialism 01:11:32 Q&A: Bonapartism, Equilibrium & Class Analysis 01:12:19 Q&A: Political Rackets & "Gangs" in Post-Soviet States 01:19:13 Q&A: Left Populism & The "Modern Prince" 01:21:55 Q&A: Social Exclusion & Political Unity in Ukraine Dr. Volodymyr Ishchenko is a sociologist and research associate at the Osteuropa-Institut of Freie Universität Berlin. He is the author of Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War (Verso, 2024), which analyzes the post-Soviet crisis of hegemony and the trajectory of Ukraine’s political transformation. https://www.versobooks.com/products/3... Date: January 21, 2026 Location: Osteuropa-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin This lecture is part of the 2025/26 lecture series "Mobility and Order: Models, Actors and Contestations in Eurasia". #revolution #ukraine #warinukraine #politicalscience #easterneurope