Adapting to Survive or Thrive: Civil Society, the Third Sector and Social Movements in ‘Post-Soviet’ Spaces: An Introduction to the Special Section

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was heralded at the time as a victory for freedom of thought, expression, enterprise, and democracy. It was also opportunity to implement economic and political changes that would create long lasting vibrant and democratic societies across the ‘post-soviet’ space (Fukuyama, 1993). Moreover, it was hoped that the mass participation events at the heart of the dissolution of the Soviet Union would lead to the development of a vibrant civil space that would act as bulwark against authoritarian backsliding. Unfortunately, such broad-brushed assumptions did not account for the nuances in which former Soviet Union states gained their independence (Kamerade et al., 2016), and how these nuances shaped their subsequent social, political, and economic development. Instead, the ‘post-soviet’ space continues to be treated rather homogeneously. This special section in Voluntary Sector Review challenges this by inviting and selecting papers aimed to explores the contextualised dynamics of civil society in ‘post-soviet’ spaces. In so doing, offers a different lens on what constitutes ‘civil society’ beyond that found in established democracies.