The communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan. Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

The communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan. Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

This edited collection offers a timely and original perspective on the many upheavals and revolutions that broke out across the world during the earlytwentieth century. With previous research tending to confine revolutions within national borders, this book sets out to place them within a broader global sphere of thought and action. The authors explore the time phase between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Asturian Revolution of 1934, including cases from South Africa, Australia, China, the Middle East and Latin America. Providing insights from leading scholars in the field, this collection highlights the interconnectedness and transnationalism of upheavals and revolutions, offering a new approach which integrates political, social and cultural history. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via Link.springer.com

Revolutions are distinguished by differences in processes, as well as outcomes. By separating revolutionary processes into distinct components, we can distinguish varied types by the sequence and combination in which particular components appear. In particular, the 'color' revolutions in recent years show a distinct pattern of unfolding. However, this is not entirely novel - these events share many feature with other revolutions that had previously been considered anomalous, such as the American Revolution, and the British 'Glorious' Revolution of 1688.

This book explores the origins and effects, successes and failures of "colour revolutions" in the former Soviet Republics - the non-violent protests which succeeded in overthrowing post-communist authoritarian regimes, for example in Georgia in 2003, Ukraine in 2004 and Kyrgyzstan in 2005.

Americans remember the Civil War for its unsparing brutality. But was our fight for independence even worse?