”New Eastern Europe” is a new periodical dedicated to a broad range of subjects on the post-Soviet states. Our mission is to provide our readers with accurate, authoritative and up-to-date information on all aspects of politics, economy, society and culture in the former Soviet republics. We will work hard to make our bi-monthly magazine a favourite forum for everyone, professional or not, with a keen interest in Eastern Europe.

Our first issue opens with a text by Lilia Shevtsova, professor of political science from Russia and expert at the Carnegie Moscow Centre. In her analysis of Dmitry Medvedev’s first months as president and Vladimir Putin’s first months as prime minister she concludes that it is Putin who holds the real power. His domination in this power-sharing system comes from a strong team of advisers with chief positions in the Kremlin, a feat that Medvedev has as yet failed to accomplish. By allowing this power-sharing system as president and government Putin has created precedence; the Russian tradition of a strong autocratic government has thus been undermined. According to Shevtsova it is not very likely that Medvedev will follow in the footsteps of Mikhail Gorbachev, a politician who introduced reforms in the Soviet system, which ended his career and brought about the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Vitaly Portnikov, a Ukrainian journalist working for the Moscow-based branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, offers us a glimpse into his as yet unpublished biography of Dmitry Medvedev. A chapter of this first-time account of Medvedev’s life provides us with a description of his formative years in Leningrad and the details of his steady rise to power. The sometimes bumpy relationship between Vladimir Putin and his protégé is also explored, with a special focus on the transition of power between the two. Portnikov’s insightful analysis of the process presents the Polish reader with a window onto the intricacies of political life in the Kremlin.

After Russia, the next country with important changes going on is Belarus. Andrej Lachovich, a political scientist from Minsk, paints a picture of the political scene in Belarus before the coming Parliamentary elections. He draws our attention to Alexander Lukashenko and his camp, not the opposition, laying bare the implicit struggle between the siloviki, i.e. representatives of law enforcement agencies and the technocrats. The most important question he poses is whether in its wake the struggle will produce an autocratic dynasty ruling Belarus with Lukashenko’s elder son Viktor stepping into his father’s shoes.

The first issue of “New Eastern Europe” also features: professor Grzegorz Przebinda reflecting on the recently deceased writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; Andrzej Brzeziecki in conversation with professor Barbara Skarga on forgiveness in relation to the suffering caused by Russians in the 20th century; Orest Drul, a political scientist from Ukraine, on the Party of Regions; Kiryl Pazniak, an independent journalist from Belarus, with a commemorative text about Kuropaty – on the 20th anniversary of the discovery of a mass grave in the Kuropaty forest where tens of thousands of people fell victim to the Soviet secret police, a Stalinism crime notoriously neglected by Lukashenko’s government in Minsk.

Przełożył Sławomir Męczykowski