ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a limited success story, why and under which circumstances even the very weak emerging new left in post-Soviet societies is, nevertheless, sometimes able to win hegemony within large protests and grass-roots movement. The "weak civil society" thesis often played a saviour role for the expected but seemingly failing democratization of the post-Soviet states. One of the earliest discussions about weak and strong civil societies comes from Antonio Gramsci. The student protests in autumn 2010 present a unique case when the new left was actually able to lead a large social-economic protest and claim hegemony there. The protest events data also show that civil society in Ukraine is not just weak; it is split between institutionalized and grass-roots parts. The primacy effect also explains the successful transactional activism between the DA and FRI, through which the latter provided the regional network and their expertise for the DA in return for mass mobilization in Kiev for the central action.
