ABSTRACT
Civil society in the form of voluntary associations constituted an important part of public life in Tsarist Russia. After 1917, Bolshevik policies gradually eliminated most independent groups, while requiring participation (or at least membership) in state-sponsored profession-based organisations. This changed in the second half of the 1980s, leading some observers to accord “the return of civil society” a major role in ending Communist rule. In the Gorbachev years, Russia experienced a classic pattern of mobilisation to remove an authoritarian regime followed by rapid demobilisation. In the twenty-first century the Russian government has sought to restrict independent organisations while encouraging and supporting groups that further government agendas. At the same time, the Russian government accepts a plethora of local civil society organisations that pose no direct challenge to the regime.
