A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Issue 2026, 1: Download.
Dominika v. Polanska, Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF) at Uppsala University and Södertörn University. Leader of a project started in 2015 at Södertörn University, financed by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, called “Challenging the Myths of Weak Civil Society in Post-socialist Settings: ‘Unexpected’ Alliances and Mobilizations in the Field of Housing Activism in Poland”.
Grzegorz Piotrowski is currently a CBEES Fellow; previously involved in three research projects at Södertörn University. PhD in social and political sciences at the European University Institute in 2011. Research interests: issues of anarchism, alterglobalism, squatting, social movements, postsocialism, and urban movements.
In this interview, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė shares her experience of becoming a writer in the post-Soviet conditions of 1990s Lithuania. Her development as a writer coincided with a drastic change in what it meant to be a writer: from being a political spokesperson to being an economic entity.
Although the elections were on the large respecting international standards and fundamental freedoms, the process has showed that Montenegro’s democracy is fragile and deeply divided along two lines, where NATO membership and ultimate geopolitical allegiance is strongly contested. The Montenegrin democracy may face important challenges from within, and is seemingly standing with few defenders among the established political actors.
The December 11th 2016 Romanian Parliamentary elections witnessed a dramatic redrawing of the Romanian political map, and confirmed the inability of the radical right populist parties to be serious contenders in parliamentary politics for the coming mandate. The elections also marked the return to a system of proportional electoral representation on party lists.
Disinformation tools are not something unique or new and have been used long time ago. But now we are living in times when information became a weapon. Annexation of Crimea, war in Donbas and in Syria have shown a significant role of information.
What could be expected from Mirziyoyev’s term in office? First of all, there is no reason to doubt about his promise to follow Karimov’s policies both in domestic and foreign policy domain. His backing comes from the clans and he must continue to balance between the state’s and regional power brokers’ interests, the first and foremost being stability at all costs.
Azerbaijan, politically, culturally and sportively, argues it wants to be considered a “European”, modern and admirable country. This becomes problematic, as nation branding can never replace state building. On September 26 the population of Azerbaijan went to the polls to give their opinion on no less than 29 proposed amendments to different chapters of the 1995 Constitution. It is no overstatement that the Referendum went by largely disregarded by the international community – and on average the Azerbaijani population did not care much.
The low turnout is one of the most worrying signals in these elections. Only 51.6 percent of the electorate went out to vote. The incumbent party the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia (GD) did win a striking mandate with 115 of the total 150 seats in the Georgian Parliament. The party will now be able to govern without support from other parties, and it also passed the 113 seats required to make constitutional changes.
Kalle Kniivilä, Sovjets barnbarn: Ryssarna i Baltikum. [The grandchildren of the Soviet Union: The Russians in the Baltic states] Atlas 2016. 320 pages
Jukka Gronow and Sergey Zhuravlev, Fashion Meets Socialism, Fashion Industry in the Soviet Union after the Second World War Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 2015 303 pages
Benedikts Kalnačs, 20th Century Baltic Drama: Postcolonial Narratives, Decolonial Options, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2016. 235 pages