While
much attention has been devoted to the alleged failure of
post-communist transformation to generate popular protests in Eastern
Europe, less attention has been paid to the exploration of existing
examples of disruptive social contention in the region. This paper
examines one of the most militant and prolonged cases of protest in
Eastern Europe - the Donbas miners’ movement in Ukraine. The miners
have succeeded in influencing the state and governing authorities by
the means of contentious collective action. The miners’ movement
has, nevertheless, failed to achieve its aims. This paper argues that
it is the specific dynamics of contentious politics under
post-communism rather than the lack of violent protest that explains
the failure of the miners’ social movement.
