First published in Russian at Rabkor ( https://rabkor.ru/columns/editorial-columns/2025/10/16/interview-from-behind-bars/ ). Translation and introduction by Dmitry Pozhidaev for LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal ( https://links.org.au/ ).
Boris Kagarlitsky, a Russian sociologist and long-time left intellectual, is currently serving a sentence in a general-regime colony (IK-4). The interview below was conducted by Andrey Rudoy — a left journalist and host of the YouTube channel Vestnik Buri (listed by the Russian state as a “foreign agent”) — and first appeared in October 2025 as a long text ( https://rabkor.ru/columns/editorial-columns/2025/10/16/interview-from-behind-bars/ ) on Rabkor , 1 ( https://links.org.au/interview-boris-kagarlitsky-behind-bars#footnote1_gOtvUnnEI6Wpvine30PIZaZttFOHUCe-7TJjQgLq0_q9iLFkOXWq0k ) with a companion long-form video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOh8yQDaEac ) on Vestnik Buri. The video presents Kagarlitsky’s responses (received from prison) with AI-assisted voice rendering and crisp auto-captions, which makes the material unusually watchable for a prison interview. Spanning prison life, the war, Stalinism debates, the state of Russia’s left media, and prospects for a post-war political realignment, this is Kagarlitsky at his most lucid. Asked whether he regrets not leaving Russia when he had the chance, his answer is simple: no regrets — not only was it the right choice, it was an important one. Read at https://links.org.au/interview-boris-kagarlitsky-behind-bars -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39167): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39167 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116185637/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
