by Helena Witzke
Dr. Katia Levintova, WMU Department of Political Science 2004 Ph.D. graduate, recently returned to campus to talk about the “Evolution of the Communist Party in Post-Communist Russia.” An assistant professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, hers was the first talk of the new semester for the WMU Institute of Government and Politics.
Dr. Katia Levintova, WMU political science Ph.D. graduate
Levintova addressed the changing trends of the Russian Communist Party in recent decades. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party had to evolve in order to maintain its influence in the Russian government, and she emphasized the course of overall democratic reform taken by the Party, despite the presence of remaining hardliners.
In an interview with WMUK, WMU’s nonprofit public radio station, Levintova noted that support for the Party has changed in recent times from mostly the older generation, which had been somewhat left out of the current system, to a younger, middle-class base. “[The younger people] are quite sympathetic to the communist agenda, which is again not communist in a sense but more socially democratic.”
Levintova is a widely published author of several articles on democratization in Russia and Eastern Europe. She teaches comparative politics, international relations, U.S. foreign policy and political behavior.
Here, she is interviewed by the College of Arts and Sciences on her feelings about international education and her Ph.D. from Western.
Links:
Contact Susan Hoffmann, Director, Institute of Government and Politics.
Dr. Katia Levintova’s profile
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Institute of Government and Politics
Listen to the WMUK interview with Dr. Levintova
