Dissent Magazine | 06/08/2022
A conversation with Ilya Budraitskis on how the invasion of Ukraine has transformed Russian society.
Ilya Budraitskis’s collection of essays Dissidents Among Dissidents: Ideology, Politics and the Left in Post-Soviet Russia (2017) won praise in the Russophone literary world for carving a new path against both liberalism and illiberalism in Russia. Its English translation was published a month before Russia invaded Ukraine—just in time to serve as a guide for the political dynamics gripping the country.
Three months into Vladimir Putin’s war, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, and 14 million have fled their homes. Facing a growing crackdown on dissent, thousands of Russians have also moved abroad. Budraitskis is one of them. He continues to publicly oppose the invasion from outside Russia and recently launched a multilingual media outlet, Posle, with colleagues from several post-Soviet countries. I spoke with Budraitskis about how the invasion is transforming Russian society and what lessons should be drawn from this moment.
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Naomi Cohen | journalist 