Artur Klinaŭ Osteuropa   Events in Belarus have departed radically from the script. Putin may have been gambling on a destabilized Lukashenka, but not on a full-blown national uprising, speculates …

Jan Sowa Instead of looking at populists’ lies, it’s worth taking a look at the few truths they rely on: voters do recognize that liberal democracies have not worked in …

Or three short essays on solidarity Mykola Riabchuk In the absence of civic traditions and positive social capital, society often organises itself along mafia-style norms. Post-communist Ukrainian society is a …

Roma Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 Marko Pecak   Violence against Roma is part of the European normality. It took over seven decades for Europe to acknowledge the genocide of Roma …

Maria Lipman Russia’s popular vote approving the ‘zeroing’ of Putin’s terms has been hailed by the regime as a triumphant demonstration of trust. Putin’s uncontested status as supreme authority has …

It seems that each of us knows something about the Jesuits. From school history lessons, from films and books about conspiracies and mysteries, from newspapers and politics. The essence and …

Ingo Petz On 9 August, presidential elections will take place in Belarus. These are elections that are not elections. Long-term autocrat Aliaksandr Lukashenka has no intention of giving the opposition …

Thomas Hylland Eriksen Our slowed-down, cooled-down, scaled-down lives during the pandemic are evidence that quality of life does not depend on high productivity and frantic consumption. Suddenly, it has become …

Irina Borogan Andrei Soldatov Vladimir Putin’s anger and jealousy has taken down many proactive leaders throughout Russia – and left the country vulnerable to crisis. The oil price war against …

Péter Krekó From anti-vaxxers to terrorists, people often look for hidden causes which match the magnitude of the collapse they are facing. Uncertainty and public distrust are fertile ground for …

The end of the fifties in Czechoslovakia. After the trial and executions of intellectuals such as Záviš Kalandra, after the currency collapse, after the state’s complete vassalage to the cruel …

The repression of the judiciary in Poland Marta Bucholc Maciej Komornik   The ruling of the European Court of Justice on the controversial reform of the Supreme Court of Poland …

Corona crisis reveals grassroots support   Boglárka Fedorkó   When crisis hits, vulnerable groups suffer. And sex workers, already enduring precarity, have become the scapegoats of COVID-19’s health focus, facing heavy …

The economics of real estate: speculation and urban development Susanne Heeg   The spatial limits of speculation have been broken and the world is constantly combed for investment opportunities. The …

Jiří Přibáň   The pandemic prompts fundamental questions. How do we define society’s relationship to nature? How resilient are our democracies to the abuse of emergency powers? How far can …