The End of the Soviet World?: Essays on Post-Communist Political and Social Change (Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society)

Butterwick, Richard – Chairholder of the European Civilization Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin, where the Three Ukrainian Revolutions (3R) project was carried out. He is also Professor of Polish-Lithuanian History at University College London and Principal Historian of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. His research and publications concentrate on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Age of Enlightenment. Awards include the Polish Historical Society's Pro historia Polonorum Prize for the book The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1733-1795: Light and Flame (2020). Cichocki, Marek – Professor at the College of Europe in Natolin and Professor of International Relations at the Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. He specialises in international relations, German European politics, intellectual and political history of Europe. He lectured at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the Warsaw University (1995-2015), Postgraduate School for Social Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences (2001-2003) and at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (2021-2022). He is also editor-in-chief of the Teologia Polityczna yearly. He has authored books, essays, articles and dissertations on international relations and history. Gajda, Kinga Anna – Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University. She is a professor of cultural studies, and holds a doctorate in literary studies. Her research interests include memory and heritage, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe in the post-communist era. She is an author and editor of numerous publications as well as a member of the editorial teams of The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Civic and Political Studies; The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies; The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Educational Studies and The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies. Kasparov, Gary – Former world chess champion. His famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-97 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream. He has been a contributing editor to The Wall Street Journal since 1991 and is a frequent commentator on politics and human rights. In 2013 he was named a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Oxford-Martin School. Kasparov’s book How Life Imitates Chess on decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of two acclaimed series of chess books: My Great Predecessors and Modern Chess. Lachowicz, Magdalena – Assistant Professor at the Department of Eastern Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Her research interests include: ethnic relations and regional movements in the former Soviet republics, the history of the Soviet Union, and civil society movements in contemporary Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Michnik, Wojciech – Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Jagiellonian University and the Transatlantic Project Coordinator for the Central and South-East Europe Programme at London School of Economics IDEAS at the Jagiellonian University and contributing editor for New Eastern Europe. He was a 2023-24 Fulbright-NATO Security Studies Fellow at the University of Arizona. In 2019 he was the Eisenhower Defense Fellow at NATO Defense College in Rome. Previously he served as a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute (in 2015-2016) and as a foreign and security policy analyst at the Department of Americas, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (2014). He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Jagiellonian University. His main research interests include Transatlantic security, particularly NATO-Russia relations, and Great Power competition in the Middle East. Mink, Georges – Permanent Professor at the College of Europe in Natolin. From 2019 to 2023 he was the Chairholder of the Chair of European History and Civilization. He is a sociologist and political scientist, specialising in Central and Eastern Europe. He has been one of the main two leaders of the Three Ukrainian Revolutions (3R) research project which was carried out by the College of Europe in Natolin from 2016 to 2024. He is Director Emeritus of Research at the Institut des Sciences Sociales et du Politique (CNRS - France), Université de Paris X, Nanterre and former President of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES), 2015-2021. His research and publications – more than 250 – include books, chapters in the collective publications, articles and expert papers, and are dedicated to political systems, the sociopolitical evolution of these regimes, the conversion of ex-communist elites in Central and Eastern Europe and the Europeanisation of national political systems. He was also a co-editor of the first two volumes of the Three Ukrainian Revolutions publication prepared in the framework of the 3R research project and published by Ibidem. Among his recent books is also La Pologne au coeur de l'Europe, de 1914 à aujourd'hui, histoire politique et conflits de mémoire, published by Buchet-Chastel in 2015 (French version) and in 2017 (Polish version). Olędzka, Justyna – Lecturer at the Faculty of History of the University of Białystok, Poland, and coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Eastern Studies Team. She is an expert at the Academic Center for Strategic Analysis and a member of the international analytical group "Belarus-Ukraine-Region" operating at the Center for Eastern Europe at the University of Warsaw. Her research interests focus on the issues of legitimisation and de-legitimisation of leadership in the post-Soviet area, the role of propaganda and disinformation in non-democracies, and the theory and practice of social engineering. Reichardt, Iwona – Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the New Eastern Europe journal at the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław. She holds a PhD in political science from the Jagiellonian University where she now teaches courses on Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since 2015 she has been a member of the Three Ukrainian Revolutions (3R) research team at the College of Europe in Natolin. She co-edited the three volume publication titled Three Revolutions. Mobilisation and Change in Contemporary Ukraine (2019-2022). Saifullayeu, Anton – Adjunct Professor at the University of Warsaw. He holds a PhD in humanities from the University of Warsaw. His area of academic interests include postcolonial theory, cultural anthropology of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, theory of historiography, and Belarusian history of ideas. He is an author of numerous academic articles and a book on post-colonial historiographies titled Postkolonialne historiografie which was published in Poland in 2020. Wańczyk, Kacper – Analyst focusing on Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and a PhD student at Koźmiński University in Warsaw. His doctoral research focuses on the idea of property in Belarus and Estonia and its influence on contemporary macroeconomic policies. He works at the Academic Centre of Strategic Analysis of the War Studies University and is a member of the analytical group "Belarus-Ukraine-Region" operating at the Center for Eastern Europe at the University of Warsaw. He is a former diplomat who has served in Belarus and Afghanistan, among other places. Wolczuk, Kataryna – Professor of East European Politics at the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. She holds a PhD in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on politics in Eastern Europe, the EU’s relations with post-Soviet states as well as on Russia and Eurasian integration. Her publications include: Eurasian Economic Integration: Law, Policy, and Politics, Edward Elgar: 2013, Ukraine between the EU and Russia: the Integration Challenge, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 (with R. Dragneva) and The Ukraine Conflict: Security, Identity and Politics in the Wider Europe, Routledge: London and New York, 2017 (co-edited with D. Averre). She is an Associate Fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and a Senior Professorial Fellow at the European Neighbourhood Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin. Wilson, Andrew – Professor of Ukrainian Studies at University College London. He is an author of numerous books on Ukraine, Belarus and post-Soviet states. His most recent books are Political Technology: The Globalisation of Political Manipulation (CUP, 2024) and The Ukrainians (Yale UP, 2022). His materials are also available at www.politicaltechnology.blog. He is forthcoming book is titled How Russia Created the Propaganda that Helped Create the War against Ukraine.