Andrei Grachev, who is a professor in the Degree in International Relations, was present in the School’s Auditorium to participate in the conference «The Catalan question seen from afar», which is part of a cycle dedicated to the current political situation. When he finished, he met with Badia in a downtown hotel in Barcelona to offer some answers about Soviet Russia, the effects of its collapse and the country's transition to the current regime.

According to Grachev, after the October Revolution, Stalin's conception of communism prevailed over Lenin's theses. The result was the success of a communism understood as a political method instead of a social project. In this way, "the explanation of a classless society and other aspects of the original communist project were sacrificed, as in today's China", leaving little more than the single-party structure.

The collapse of the Soviet Union thus left a gap in the discourse that for so many years had been able to "justify economic difficulties, violence, contradictions and opposition to the outside world." This space was occupied - explains Grachev - by the nationalist ideology and the orthodox religion that arrived with the conservative revolution of Putin.

We invite you to read the entire interview. In the picture, professor Grachev next to professor Onno Seroo, director of the Degree.