Post-Soviet “Political”? “Social” and “Political” in the Work of Russian Socially Oriented CSOs

This article seeks to understand the role
of civil society organizations (CSO) in contemporary
Russian society. Rather than looking narrowly at
advocacy groups, the investigation focuses on lessstudied
socially oriented organizations, including more
recently established CSOs as well as the so-called
Soviet-type voluntary organizations, which have been
almost completely neglected by Western scholarship
on Russian civil society. In contrast to the argument
that Russia’s socially oriented CSOs are apolitical – an
argument often made in Western scholarship on Russian
civil society – the research found that organizations from
both categories – the old Soviet-type and the more recent
post-Soviet – were engaged in both political advocacy
work and service provision, although they were engaged
in political and social action to varying extents.