Introduction: Civil society in contemporary Russia

In: Communist and post-communist studies: an international interdisciplinary journal, Band 45, Heft 3-4

Abstract

The large-scale protests that took place in Moscow during the winter of 2011-2012 and the demonstrations on a smaller scale in many other cities of Russia at the same time brought civil society in that country into the headlines around the world. Some Western journalists even suggested that those protests signaled the birth of civil society in Russia. Yet in fact, civil society had been present in the Russian Federation throughout the years since the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Though it is impossible to know exactly how many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) exist in Russia today, it is safe to say that thousands of them are active. The evidence that is presented in the articles in this section testifies to the stubborn persistence of organizations in Russian society in the face of conditions that often have been very unfavorable. [Copyright The Regents of the University of California; published by Elsevier Ltd.]