Join us for the CEURUS public lecture “The Rise and Fall of Civil Society in Russia from the 20th Century to the Putin Era: Religious Dissent, Monopoly, and State Control”, on June 9, at 14:15 in Lossi 36-214. The lecture will be delivered by Jerry Pankhurst, held in English, and is open to everyone interested in Russian politics, religion, civil society, and post-Soviet transformations.
This presentation examines the evolution of Russian civil society from Soviet-era religious dissent to the consolidation of state and religious authority under Vladimir Putin, using the destruction of the Memorial as a symbolic turning point. It argues that civil society persisted even under authoritarian rule through dissident religious and civic networks, but that the post-Soviet period’s ideological and religious uncertainty gradually gave way to increasing state control and the monopolization of public life by the state and the Russian Orthodox Church. The presentation also questions whether independent civic engagement can still exist in contemporary Russia and explores the constraints that Orthodox political culture places on civil society and dissent.
About the speaker
Jerry Pankhurst is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Russian and Central Eurasian Studies at Wittenberg University and a distinguished scholar of Russian and post-Soviet societies. His teaching and research have focused extensively on these regions, alongside broader interests in the sociology of religion and political sociology.
The lecture is organised by the Centre for East European and Eurasian Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu.
