Richard Sakwa (born 1953) is an expert in the field of Russian and Eastern European communist and post-communist politics.
Sakwa is currently Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent. From 2001 to 2007 he was also the head of the University's Politics and International Relations department. He has published extensively on Soviet, Russian and post-communist affairs, and has written and edited several books and articles on the subject. Professor Sakwa is one of the UK's leading scholars of Russian politics. His current research interests include: democratic development in Russia, nature of postcommunism and global challenges facing the former communist countries.
Prof. Sakwa is also an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a member of the Advisory Boards of the Institute of Law and Public Policy in Moscow, a member of the Eurasian Political Studies Network and a member of Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.
Academic Awards, Distinctions and Servicesmoreless
Professeur invité at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Lille 2, 2006-07.
Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, from November 2005.
Chair of the Advisory Board of the Eurasian Political Studies Network (EPSN), from February 2005.
Core Faculty and later director for ReSET (Regional Seminar for excellence in Teaching) projects funded by the Higher education Support Program of the Open Society Institute, Budapest, organised by EPSN in 2003-2009: ‘Regional Seminar for Exellence in Teaching: Transformation of the Political Institutions and Political Processes in Post-Soviet States‘.
Membership of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, conferred September 2002.
Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, from 1 September 1997 to 30 September 2000; suspended for period of external
The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism and the Medvedev Succession (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011). [ISBN 978-0-521-76842-9 (hbk); 978-0-521-14522-0 (pbk)]
The Quality of Freedom: Putin, Khodorkovsky and the Yukos Affair (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 426. [ISBN 879-0-19-921157-9]
Putin: Russia’s Choice, fully revised and updated 2nd edn (London and New York, Routledge, 2008), pp. 388. [ISBN 978-0-415-40765-6 (hbk); ISBN 978-0-415-40766-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-0-203-93193-6 (ebk)]
Russian Politics and Society, Fourth Edition, completely rewritten and reorganised (London and New York, Routledge, 2008), pp. 585. [ISBN 10: 0-415-41527-6 (hbk), ISBN 10: 0-415-41528-4 (pbk), ISBN 10: 0-203-93125-4 (ebk); ISBN 13: 978-0-415-41527-9 (hbk), ISBN 13: 978-0-415-41528-6 (pbk), ISBN 13: 978-0-203-93125-7 (ebk)]
Putin: Russia’s Choice (London and New York, Routledge, 2004), pp. 307. [ISBN 0-415-29663-3 (hbk); 0-415-29664-1 (pbk)]
Spanish edition
Putin: El Elegido de Rusia (Madrid, Ediciones Folio, S.A., 2005). [ISBN: 84-413-2251-1]
Russian edition
Putin: vybor Rossii (Moscow, Olma Press, 2006). [ISBN: 0-415-29663-3]
Russian Politics and Society, Third Edition, completely rewritten and reorganised (London and New York, Routledge, 2002), pp. 542. [ISBN 0 415 22752 6 (hbk); 0 415 22753 4 (pbk)]
The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, in the Routledge Sources in History series, General Editor: David Welch, Professor of Modern History, UKC (London, Routledge, 1999), pp.xxi + 521. [ISBN (hbk) 0-415-12289; (pbk) 0-415-12290-2] A book of annotated documents charting the political and moral trajectory of communism in the USSR.
Postcommunism, in the series Concepts in the Social Sciences, General Editor Frank Parkin (Buckingham and Philadelphia, Open University Press, 1999), pp. 144. [ISBN 0-335-20058-3 (hbk); ISBN 0-335-20057-5 (pbk)] Translated into Portuguese as O Pós-comunismo (Lisbon, Instituto Piaget, 2001), pp. 203. [ISBN 972-771-443-9]. Spanish translation went to press in September 2004.
Soviet Politics in Perspective, Second fully reworked edition of Soviet Politics: An Introduction (London, Routledge, October 1998), pp. xiii + 355. [ISBN 0-415-16992-5 (hbk); ISBN 0-415-07153-4 (pbk)]
Russian Politics and Society, Second Edition, completely rewritten and reorganised (London and New York, Routledge, October 1996), pp. xvii + 501. [ISBN 0-415-15483-9 (hbk); 0-415-12160-4 (pbk)]
Russian Politics and Society (London and New York, Routledge, September 1993), pp. xi + 506. [ISBN 0-415-09540-9 (hbk); 0-415-09541-7 (pbk)].
Gorbachev and His Reforms, 198590 (London, Philip Allan/Simon and Schuster, October 1990; Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, February 1991), pp. xiv + 459. [0-86003-423-2 (hbk); 0-86003-723-1 (pbk)]
Soviet Politics: An Introduction (London and New York, Routledge, June 1989), pp. xvi + 356. [ISBN 0-415-00505-1 (hbk); 0-415-00506-X (pbk)]
Soviet Communists in Power: A Study of Moscow During the Civil War, 191821 (London, Macmillan, July 1988; New York, St Martins, 1988), pp. xxii + 342. [0-333-39847-5]
Communism in Russia: An Interpretative Essay (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. vii + 167. [ISBN: 978-0-333-60679-7 paperback]
Russian edition: to be published in Russian by Rosspen.
Chapters in books
'The New Conception of Democracy under Perestroika', in Socialism and Democracy edited by David McLellan and Sean Sayers (London, Macmillan, 1991), pp. 13663.
'The New Federalism in the USSR', in Preston King and Andrea Bosco (eds.), A Constitution for Europe: A Comparative Study of Federal Constitutions and Plans for the United States of Europe (London, Lothian Foundation Press, 1991), pp. 10932.
'The European Community, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe', in Similarities and Differences in the Adaptation of the Countries of Central Europe to the European Community (Budapest, Euration/European Cooperation Foundation, 1992), pp. 69-80.
'Post-communism and the Problem with Marshall Aid', in Keynes and the Role of the State, The Tenth Keynes Seminar held at the University of Kent at Canterbury 1991, edited by Derek Crabtree and A. P. Thirlwall (London, Macmillan, 1993), pp. 217-38.
'A Cleansing Storm: The August Coup and the Triumph of Perestroika', in The Soviet Transition: From Gorbachev to Yeltsin (London, Frank Cass Publishers, 1993), pp. 131-49.
'Russia, Communism, Democracy', in Stephen White, Alex Pravda and Zvi Gitelman (eds), Developments in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, 3rd edn (London, Macmillan, 1994), pp. 287-308.
'Pereosmyslivaya "voennyi kommunizm"' ('Rethinking "War Communism"') in Yu. A. Polyakov and Yu. I. Igritskii (eds), Grazhdanskaya voina v Rossii: Perekrestok Mnenii (Civil War in Russia: Different Views) (Moscow, Nauka/Russian Academy of Sciences, 1994-5), pp. 133-168.
'The Soviet State, Civil Society and Moscow Politics: Stability and Order in Early NEP, 1921-24', in Julian Cooper, Maureen Perrie and E. A. Rees (eds), Soviet History 1917-1945: Essays in Honour of R. W. Davies (London, Macmillan, 1995), pp. 42-77.
'The Development of the Russian Party System', in Peter Lentini (ed.), Elections and Political Order in Russia (Budapest, Central European University Press, 1995), pp. 169-201.
'From the USSR to Postcommunist Russia', in Stephen White, Alex Pravda and Zvi Gitelman (eds), Developments in Russian Politics, 4th edn (London, Macmillan, 1997), pp. 1-18. [ISBN hbk 0-333-69469-4; pbk 0-333-69470-8]
'Left or Right?: The Communist Party of the Russian Federation', in John Lowenhardt (ed.), Party Politics in Postcommunist Russia (London, Frank Cass, 1998), pp. 128-58. (ISBN 0 7146 4892 2). Special issue of The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Spring 1998.
'Russian Political Evolution: A Structural Approach', in Michael Cox (ed.), Rethinking Soviet Collapse: Sovietology, the Death of Communism and the New Russia (London and New York, Pinter, 1998), pp. 181-201. [1-85567-321-5 (hbk); 1-85567-322-3 (pbk)]
'Introduction: The Democratic Experience', in Richard Sakwa (ed.), The Experience of Democratisation in Eastern Europe (London, Macmillan, 1999), pp. 1-15. [ISBN 0-333-71195-5]
'Russian Nationalism and Democratic Development', in Michael Bowker and Cameron Ross (eds), Russia After the Cold War (Harlow, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999), pp. 199-220.
'Rossisskii regionalizm, vyrabotka politicheskogo kursa i gosudarstvennoe razvitie' ('Russian Regionalism: Policy-making and State Development'), in N. V. Varlamova and T.A. Vasileva (eds), Rossiiskii federalizm: Konstitutsionnye predposylki i politicheskaya real'nost' (Russian Federalism: Constitutional Principles and Political Reality) (Moscow, Centre for the Study of Constitutionalism of the Moscow Public Science Foundation, 2000), pp. 8-37. [ISBN 5-89554-117-8]
'State and Society in Post-Communist Russia', in Neil Robinson (ed.), Institutions and Change in Russia (London, Macmillan, 2000), pp. 193-211. [ISBN 0-333-73525-0]
'Introduction: The Many Dimensions of Europe', in Richard Sakwa and Anne Stevens (eds) Contemporary Europe (London, Macmillan, 2000), pp. 1-22.
'Conclusion' (with Anne Stevens), in Richard Sakwa and Anne Stevens (eds) Contemporary Europe (London, Macmillan, 2000), pp. 251-61.
'The Republicanization of Russia: Federalism and Democratization in Transition', in Chris Pierson and Simon Tormey (eds), Politics at the Edge: The PSA Yearbook 1999 (London, Macmillan, 2000, in association with the Political Studies Association), pp. 215-26. [ISBN 0-333-77903-7 (hbk); 0-333-91562-3 (pbk)]
'Russian Regionalism, Policy-Making and State Development', in Stefanie Harter and Gerald Easter (eds), Shaping the Economic Space in Russia: Decision Making Processes, Institutions and Adjustment to Change in the El'tsin Era (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000), Chapter 1, pp. 11-34. [ISBN 0 7546 1407 7 (hbk)]
'The Crisis and Reconstitution of the State in Russia', in Helena Rytövuori-Apunen (ed.), Russian-European Interfaces in the Northern Dimension of the EU (Tampere, University of Tampere Department of Political Science and International Relations, 2000), pp. 11-42. [ISBN 951-44-4866-9; ISSN 0788-169X]
'Democracy Assistance: Russia's Experience as Recipient', in Peter Burnell (ed.), Democracy Assistance: International Co-operation for Democratization (London, Frank Cass, 2000), pp. 288-314. [0-7146 hbk; 0-7146 pbk]
'Russia: From a Corrupt System to a System with Corruption', in Robert Williams (ed.), Party Finance and Political Corruption (Basingstoke and London, Macmillan; New York, St Martin's Press, 2000), pp. 123161. ISBN 0333739868
'The Age of Paradox: The Anti-revolutionary Revolutions of 1989-91', in Moira Donald and Tim Rees (eds), Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe (London, Macmillan, 2001), pp. 159-76. [ISBN 0-333-23622-0 (hbk); 0-333-23623-9 (pbk)]
'Parties and Organised Interests', in Stephen White, Alex Pravda and Zvi Gitelman (eds), Developments in Russian Politics, 5th edn (Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2001), pp. 84-107. ISBN hbk 0-333-94858-0; pbk 0-333-94857-2
'Liberalism and Post-communism', in Mark Evans (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Liberalism (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2001), Chapter 20, pp. 269-86. ISBN (hbk) 0-748-61358-7; (pbk) 0-748-61359-5]
‘The Keystone in the Arch: Inclusion, Democracy Promotion and Universalism in Central and Eastern Europe', in Andrew Cottey and Derek Averre (eds), New Security Challenges in Postcommunist Europe: Securing Europe’s East (Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 131-50. [0-7190-6131-8 (hbk); 0-7190-6132-6 (pbk)]
‘Federalism, Sovereignty and Democracy’, in Cameron Ross (ed.), Regional Politics in Russia (Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 1-22. [ISBN 0-7190-5890-2]
‘The Russian KPRF: The Powerlessness of the Powerful’, in András Bozóki and John T. Ishiyama (eds), The Communist Successor Parties of Central and Eastern Europe (Armonk, New York and London, M. E. Sharpe, 2003), pp. 240-67. [ISBN 0-7656-0986-X]
‘Putin’s Foreign Policy: Transforming “the East”’, in Gabriel Gorodetsky (ed.), Russia Between East and West: Russian Foreign Policy on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century (London, Frank Cass Publishers, Cummings Center Series, 2003), pp. 174-94. [ISBN 0-7146-5329-2 (Hbk; 0-7146 8393-0 (Pbk)]
‘Chechnya: A Just War Fought Unjustly?’, in Bruno Coppieters and Richard Sakwa (eds), Contextualizing Secession: Normative Studies in Comparative Perspective (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 156-86. [ISBN 0-19-925871-6]
‘Elections and National Integration in Russia’, in Vicki L. Hesli and William M. Reisinger (eds), The 1999-2000 Elections in Russia: Their Impact and Legacy (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 121-31. [ISBN 0-521-81676-9 (hbk)]
‘Russia and Globalisation: Concluding Comments’, in Leo McCann (ed.), Russian Transformations (London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 211-23.
‘Do Parties Matter in Contemporary Russia?’, in Geir Flikke (ed.), The Uncertainties of Putin’s Democracy (Oslo, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), 2004, pp. 63-92. [ISBN 82 7002 1008]
‘Regime Change from Yeltsin to Putin: Normality, Normalcy or Normalisation?’, in Cameron Ross (ed.), Russian Politics under Putin (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2004), pp. 17-38. [ISBN 0 7190 6800 2 (hbk); 0 7190 6801 0 (pbk)]
‘Presidential Power: the Struggle for Hegemony’, in William Alex Pridemore (ed.), Ruling Russia: Law, Crime, and Justice in a Changing Society (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), Chapter 1, pp. 19-38. [ISBN 0-7425-3675-0]
‘Partial Adaptation and Political Culture’, in Stephen Whitefield (ed.), Political Culture and Post-Communism (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), Chapter 3, pp. 42-53. [ISBN-10: 1-4039-4520-9]
‘Nation and Nationalism in Russia’, in Gerard Delanty and Krishan Kumar (eds), The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism (London, Sage Publications, 2006), Chapter 34, pp. 410-24. [ISBN 1-4129-0101-4; 13 978 1 4129 0101 7]
‘Russia as Eurasia: An Innate Cosmopolitanism’, in Gerard Delanty (ed.), Europe and Asia Beyond East and West (London and New York, Routledge, 2006), Chapter 15, pp. 215-27. [ISBN: 0-415-37947-4]
‘The Modernisation of Leadership: From Gorbachev to Putin’, in Markku Kangaspuro and Jeremy Smith (eds), Modernisation in Russia since 1900, Studia Fennica: Historica 12 (Helsinki, Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki, 2006), pp. 160-86. [ISBN 951-746-854-7; ISSN 1458-526X]
‘Putin’s Leadership’, in Dale R. Herspring (ed.), Putin’s Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain, 3rd edn (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), Chapter 1, pp. 13-35. [ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-5392-7; 978-0-7425-5393-4]
‘Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Policy Towards the West: Towards a New Realism’, in Jackie Gower and Graham Timmins (eds), Russia and Europe in the Twenty-First Century: An Uneasy Partnership (London and New York, Anthem Press, 2007), pp. 1-22. [ISBN-10: 1 84331 220 4 (hbk); ISBN-13: 978 1 84331 220 8 (hbk)]
‘The CIS: Conflicts of Place and Time’, in David Dusseault (ed.), The CIS: Form or Substance?, Aleksanteri Papers 2/2007 (Helsinki, Aleksanteri Institute, 2007), pp. 298-317. [ISBN: 978-952-10-4018-4]
‘Vladimir Putin and the New Realism in Foreign Policy’, in Larisa Deriglazova, Anselm Skuhra and Stefan Fritsch (eds), EU and Russia: Face to Face (Tomsk, Tomsk State University Publishing House, 2007), pp. 10-33. [ISBN 5-7511-1940-1]
‘Myth and Democratic Identity in Russia’, in Alexander Wöll and Harald Wydra (eds), Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe (London and New York, Routledge, 2008), pp. 203-218. [ISBN 10: 0-415-42822-X (hbk); ISBN 10: 0-203-93466-0 (ebk): ISBN 13: 978-0-415-42822-4 (hbk); ISBN 13: 878-0-203-93466-1 (ebk).
‘Putin i vlast’ protivorechii’ (‘Putin and the Power of Contradiction’, in N. Yu. Lapina (ed.), Dva prezidentskikh sroka V. V. Putina: Dinamika peremen. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov (Moscow, Russian Academy of Sciences INION, 2008), pp. 10-31. [ISBN 978-5-248-00458-4]
‘Putin’s Leadership: Character and Consequences’, in Richard Sakwa (ed.), Power and Policy in Putin’s Russia (London, Routledge, 2008). [ISBN 10: 0-415-48632-7; ISBN13: 978-0-415-48632-3]
‘Subjects or Citizens: Obstacles to the Exercise of Constitutional Sovereignty Rights in Contemporary Russia’, in Hayashi Tadayuki and Ogushi Atsushi (eds), Post-Communist Transformations: The Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia in Comparative Perspective, Slavic Eurasian Studies No. 21 (University of Hokkaido, Slavic Research Centre, 2009), pp. 27-46. [ISBN 978-4-938637-51-4]
‘Liberalism and Neo-Patrimonialism in Post-Communist Russia’, in William Simons (ed.), Private and Civil Law in the Russian Federation: Essays in Honor of F. J. M. Feldbrugge (Leiden & Boston, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009), pp. 327-46, in the series ‘Law in Eastern Europe, No. 60. [ISSN 0075-823X; ISBN 978 90 04 155 34 3]
‘Putin’s Leadership’, in Stephen Wegren and Dale Herspring (eds), After Putin’s Russia, 4th edn (Boulder, CO, Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), pp. 17-38. [pbk: 978-0-7425-5785-7]
‘Politics in Russia’, in Stephen White, Richard Sakwa and Henry E. Hale (eds), Developments in Russian Politics 7 (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 1-19. [ISBN 978-0-230-22448-3 hb/ 22449-0 pb]
‘Federalism and Democracy in the Russian Federation’, in Michael Burgess and Alain-G. Gagnon (eds), Federal Democracies |(London and New York, Routledge, 2010), pp. 202-31. [ISBN10: 0-415-55548-5 (hbk)]
‘De la démocratisation de Gorbatchev au coup d’État constitutionnel d’Eltsine’, in Gilles Favarel-Garrigues et Kathy Rousselet (eds), La Russie Contemporaine (Paris, Fayard: Les grands etudes internationales, 2010), pp. 91-102. [ISBN 978-2-213-63380-0]
