For Europe, the 24th of February 2022 marked a historic turning point. Until then, many decision-makers and commentators did not understand that developments in post-communist Russia can lead to the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

These two collected volumes illustrate some of the factors preparing this tragic escalation. They assemble select papers published mainly in the Germany-based Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society and Forum für osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte (Forum for the Contemporary History and Ideas of Eastern Europe).

This first volume reflects upon some critical characteristics of the late Soviet and post-Soviet elites, institutions, and society of Russia.

The volume’s contributors are Håvard Bækken (Oslo), Olenka Dmytryk (Kyiv), Rolf Fredheim (Riga), Konstantin Kaminskij (Berlin), Leonid Luks (Eichstätt), Chris Monday (Seoul), Alexander J. Motyl (New Brunswick), Felix Riefer (Bonn), Natalia Samover (Moscow), Simon Schlegel (Kyiv), and Maria Snegovaya (Washington, DC).

Leonid Luks (Edited by) Dr. Leonid Luks studied History at Jerusalem and Munich. He is Professor Emeritus of Central and East European History at The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, author of many books, and the General Editor of the Forum für osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte and Forum noveishei vostochnoevropeiskoi istorii i kul’tury.
Felix Riefer (Edited by) Dr. Felix Riefer studied Politics at Cologne and Paris. He is an independent analyst in Bonn, the Book Reviews Editor of the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, and the author of Russlands Außenpolitik unter Putin 2000–2018 (Springer/Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2020).
Andreas Umland (Edited by) Andreas Umland, M.Phil. (Oxford), Dr.Phil. (FU Berlin), Ph.D. (Cambridge), Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, Senior Expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Julie Fedor (Edited by) Julie Fedor is lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Melbourne. She has taught modern Russian history at the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Melbourne, and St Andrews. She is the author of Russia and the Cult of State Security (2011); coauthor of Remembering Katyn (2012); and coeditor of Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (2013) and Memory, Conflict and New Media: Web Wars in Post-Socialist States (2013).