Hello, and welcome to understanding the Post-Soviet Space course.

In this course we will cover:

• The history of the formation of the Former USSR.

• How the USSR developed through the years.

• What were the causes of the USSR’s collapse.

• How different countries formed and why they are so different from each other.

• Current events that are shaping the future of Post-Soviet countries and the rest of the world.

The course will include personal stories and personal points of view on the past and present situations of the Post-Soviet states. In this course, we focus especially on explaining how different ethnic, cultural, and national groups affected the collapse of the former USSR.

From more authoritarian countries like Turkmenistan that can be compared to North Korea to countries like Estonia introducing a new form of digital democracy and where political and civil rights are widely respected, we will explore different drivers that have influenced the development of new countries and why they took such different paths from each other.

Finally, we will discuss the challenges of rising authoritarianism in Belarus and Russia, current events in and around Ukraine, and why these developments are so important not only for future of these countries, but how they might affect the rest of the world.