The special issue has been initiated through the network on “Poverty and Survival Strategies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus” financed by the Swedish Institute within the Visby collaboration program which was headed by Ann-Mari Sätre. The thematic interest of this network is related to the research project “Negotiating rural poverty” financed by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) headed by Ildikó Asztalos Morell, which project contributed to the financing of the work for both editors during the process. Both projects are located at the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Ann-Mari Sätre is the main editor of this volume. She initiated the formulation of the research contributions by the members of the network that are collected for this volume and has been engaged with organizing the network meetings and workshops serving as discussion forums for the development of the papers. Ildikó Asztalos Morell was invited at the later phase of the editorial work as second editor to read and comment on the papers prior to submission to the journal.
We would like to thank all the contributors to this Special Issue for their work and commitment in producing this volume. Special thanks are due to the chief editor of Debatte Andy Kilmister for his interest and support with the editing process, and to Anastasiya Ryabchuk, for her help in mediating this very nice opportunity. We express our sincere thanks to Liya Kalinnikova for all her assistance in arranging meetings and keeping networks together. Thanks also to Lidia Kriulya, Iryna Martinenko, Alla Varyzgina and Alexander Soldatkin for assistance in arranging the workshops in Archangelsk, Kiev and Nizhny Novgorod. We also thank the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies for hosting two of the workshops, and the Centre’s director Claes Levinsson for his valuable support. Last, but not least we thank all the participants in the eight workshops for many fruitful discussions on the different papers that were produced on the way.