Political Protest in Weak Societies and Weak States: Social Control in Post-Communist Russia (Research Brief)

This project explores how sub-national factors influenced levels of protest in post-Soviet Russia during the turbulent decade of the 1990s. In the midst of rapid and often confusing and painful reforms, why did some Russian cities experience high levels of political protest, while others remained relatively quiet? My research answers this question using archived documents, newspaper clippings, and interviews based on extensive fieldwork. The project examines the socio-political histories of four provincial Russian cities: Biysk, Cherepovets, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, and Volzhskiy.

Allison D. Evans, of the University of Pennsylvania, was a 2011-2012 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.