Discussion organized by the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) and the Cluster of Excellence ‘Contestations of the Liberal Script’ (SCRIPTS)

More than three decades after the end of the Soviet Union, Russia is waging a full-scale war in Europe under an increasingly repressive political system – raising urgent questions about how this trajectory came to pass. The event brings together a renowned global historian of the Soviet Union and Russia and an insider and leading expert on the Russian economy, whose two recent books shed new light on the role elites have played in this fateful transformation. Spanning the late Soviet period to the present, the discussion traces the tragic paths of reform-minded economists who once hoped to ‘civilise’ Russia through markets to today’s political and business elites, many of whom have adapted to – and in some cases enabled – the consolidation of a wartime authoritarian regime by turning into willing ‘servants’. By placing these perspectives in dialogue, the event explores how reform ideas, individual interests, and deeply historical constraints have shaped elite behaviour at critical moments, and to what extent responsibility for Russia’s current course lies with those who sought to reform, manage, or ultimately serve the system.