Ukraine, from Maidan to war.

[For the full episode: patreon.com/bungacast]

Berlin-based Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko joins us to talk about his new book, Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War and his dissection of the war and the underlying political crisis in Ukraine. We discuss:

class conflict in Ukraine as a legacy of the collapse of the USSR and the stagnation of the Brezhnev regime in the 1970s. 

The role of the Ukrainian professional classes in the conflict and oversize influence of relatively small neo-Nazi and far-right movements 

The meaning of ‘Soviet Ukrainians’ today and whether a neo-Soviet revival is happening among youth across the post-Soviet landscape 

The difference between neo-Soviet revival and Eastern bloc ‘Ostalgie’

The concept of de-modernisation

The vicious post-Soviet cycle of passive revolutions and corrupt oligarchic regimes

Links: 

Towards the Abyss: Ukraine from Maidan to War, Volodymyr Ishchenko

The crisis of Soviet Ukraine, Volodymyr Ishchenko, UnHerd

The class conflict behind Russia’s war, Volodymyr Ishchenko, Lefteast

Russia’s War on Ukraine Has Already Changed the World, interview w/ Volodymyr Ishchenko, Jacobin

As Ukraine Expands Military Draft, Some Men Go Into Hiding, NYT