Boris Kagarlitsky Associate

Our people — Associate

Boris is a well-known international commentator on Russian politics and society and a professor at the Moscow Higher School for Social and Economic Sciences founded by Theodor Shanin, and the editor of YouTube channel Rabkor, a leading left-wing media channel in Russia.

Twitter: @B_Kagarlitsky (external link)

He studied theatre criticism at the State Institute of Theatrical Art, before being expelled for dissident activities in 1980. He was editor of the samizdat journal Levy Povorot from 1978 to 1982, which led to his arrest for 'anti-Soviet' activities in 1982. He was released in 1983. In 1988, after the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and perestroika, he resumed his studies at the GITIS, graduating in the same year, and became coordinator of the Moscow People's Front. In 1990, he was elected to the Moscow City Soviet and to the Executive of the Socialist Party (USSR).

He co-founded the Party of Labour (Russia) in October 1992. In October 1993, he was arrested for his opposition to President Boris Yeltsin during the September-October constitutional crisis, but was released the next day after international protests. Later that year, his job and the Moscow City Soviet were abolished under Yeltsin's new constitution. From 1994 to 2002, he was a senior research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISPRAN). He was awarded his Doctorate degree for his thesis, "Collective Actions and Labour Policies in Russia in the 90s," in 1995. In 2022 Russian authorities declared Boris to be a "foreign agent". In July 2023 he was detained on charges of ‘supporting terrorism’.

Latest work

Francia: de República a Oligarquía

Nueva Política

A la ‘Nueva Izquierda’ en Francia se la derrotó o se la integró en el sistema, convirtiéndola en parte del bloque neoliberal. Fue reemplazada por los nuevos rebeldes: una generación menos instruida (debido a la crisis educativa provocada por las reformas neoliberales) de jóvenes parados, cuya única manera de avanzar pasa por la confrontación con las instituciones.

Article by

Boris Kagarlitsky

Publication date: 5 October 2016
France: From Republic to Oligarchy

New Politics

The "New Left" in France was either defeated or integrated into the system, becoming a part of the neo-liberal bloc. It was replaced by the new rebels: the less-educated (due to the education crisis generated by the neo-liberal reforms) generation of unemployed young people, whose only way forward is through a confrontation with the institutions.

Article by

Boris Kagarlitsky

Publication date: 16 June 2016
Corbyn: the non-careerist politician

This summer I was going to meet with Jeremy Corbyn at a conference in Ufa, Russia. He asked for a few days to think it over promising to come unless something unplanned and significant would happen. It did. He was nominated for the leader of the British Labour Party.

Article by

Boris Kagarlitsky

Publication date: 25 September 2015