CPSU and Komsomol Activists Within the Current Ukrainian Political Elite : Analysis of Biographies and Connections.

Abstract

In this paper, social networks perspective is applied to the analysis of biographies of the ex-Komsomol and ex-Party activists who are among of the Ukrainian political elite nowadays. There are two main questions to be answered: (i) whether these actors who are members of Ukrainian political elite have common biographical expe- rience they can rely on; (ii) whether their network positions make them in fluential, or are they so-called ‘central players’ within their subnetwork and overall network of political elite.