ABSTRACT
Despite ten years of seeming state repression, Russian civil society appeared to burst forth in unprecedented ways with mass protests following parliamentary elections in December 2011. Yet many scholars studying Russia had consistently evaluated civil society as underdeveloped, as a distortion of ‘normal’ civil societies in democratic states, and as a minor player on the Russian political scene (McFaul and Treyger 2004, pp. 135–36; Levitsky and Way 2010, p. 25; Taylor 2011; Shevtsova 2007; Ostrow et al. 2007). How, then, were these protests possible? This book explores the trajectory of civil society's development in Russia during the past decade. It analyses the shifting role of the state in restricting the public arena, setting up pro-state civic groups and limiting the power of grassroots organisations. The account argues that all these factors simultaneously created opportunities for civil resistance. The book also examines the impact of economic growth on Russia as an advanced industrial society generating new societal attitudes in support of political rights, and not just social and economic rights. In addition, the discussion explores the countervailing forces that have acted to suppress civil society's development, including a tendency towards extremism across the political spectrum and the perceived pervasive role of foreign-sponsored NGOs in civil society.
