Left Perspectives on State- and Post-Socialism II: Ghosts of Revolution: Post-Soviet Resentment and the Rise of the Right

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of neoliberal optimism, a global conservative shift has taken hold—marked by rising nationalism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism.

In the post-Soviet context, the Right has capitalized on working-class resentment fueled by disillusionment with neoliberalism and the racialized capitalism of “Euro-Atlantic integration.” Market reforms, framed as a transition to democracy, have instead deepened economic dispossession, turning the post-socialist worker into a precarious migrant caught between exploitation and exclusion.

This panel examines how the Right has harnessed this resentment, translating it into electoral success, reactionary mobilization, and renewed authoritarianism. Soviet nostalgia is actively weaponized by regimes like Putin’s—not unlike Trump’s use of MAGA—to manufacture consent and consolidate power rather than challenge inequality.

Moving beyond familiar critiques of capitalism and reactionary politics, we ask: How has the Right responded to working-class grievances? What alternative strategies can the Left build in an era of crisis and deglobalization?

Bringing together perspectives from labor, feminist, queer, anti-colonial, and environmental movements, this panel explores new visions for the Left. Instead of dismissing the Right’s appeal, we examine its success to develop concrete proposals for new emancipatory politics. In a time of deep systemic rupture, we seek to expand political horizons and ignite new political imaginations.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Chair

• Zachary Hicks, UC Berkeley

Papers

• Post-Soviet Vicious Circle: The Crisis of Hegemony and the Crisis of Revolution - Volodymyr Ishchenko, Freie U Berlin (Germany)

• Tentacular Vision: What Can We Learn from Fascists, Mushrooms, and Women Who Care? - Anatoli Ulyanov, UCLA

• Staying with Failure: Soviet Nostalgia and Social Reproduction in Donbas - Olena Lyubchenko, York U (Canada)

• The Foreclosure of Continuing Old Exploitation in a New Form: Invoking the Specter of Soviet Anti-Imperialism in the 21st Century Abstract - Alex Jackson, Harvard U

Discussant

• Rafael Khachaturian, U of Pennsylvania