In memory of Iván Szelényi

On 3 August 2026 Iván Szelényi passed away — an outstanding Hungarian sociologist and one of the most influential scholars of social structure, intellectuals and post-socialist transformations in Central and Eastern Europe.

For Ukrainian sociology Iván Szelényi was not merely a world-renowned scholar whose work we read and cited. His ideas became an important intellectual resource for making sense of the profound social changes Ukraine lived through after the collapse of state socialism.

His theory of the new class, his studies of the role of intellectuals and their road to class power, and later his analysis of the emergence of capitalism in post-socialist societies substantially shaped the development of sociological thought in Ukraine. Szelényi's works entered the sociology curricula of the universities of Kharkiv, Kyiv and Lviv and gave a powerful intellectual impulse to Ukrainian sociologists studying the mechanisms of post-Soviet transformation.

A special place in this dialogue belongs to the book by Iván Szelényi, Gil Eyal and Eleanor Townsley “Making Capitalism without Capitalists”. Its Russian-language edition was produced by the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine in the monograph series “Great social transformations”. The story of that edition was itself an example of living academic cooperation across generations: the base translation was prepared over an academic year by sociology students of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University within a dedicated sociological seminar. Iván Szelényi's work was also published in Ukrainian sociological periodicals.

The visit of Iván Szelényi to Kyiv in December 2008 at the invitation of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine was a memorable event for the Ukrainian sociological community. On 10 December he gave a plenary lecture at the Sociological Readings in memory of Natalia Panina and took part in the award ceremony of the all-Ukrainian competition “Best young sociologist of the year”. For young Ukrainian researchers the chance to speak directly with a scholar of that stature mattered a great deal.

For me personally, contact with Iván Szelényi also left very warm memories. Our cooperation was not intensive, but it was always exceptionally cordial and full of mutual respect. The summer of 2003 remains particularly memorable, when at Iván's invitation I had the good fortune to be his guest in Budapest.

For many Ukrainian sociologists Iván Szelényi was and remains an unquestioned intellectual authority on the complex mechanisms by which the societies of Central and Eastern Europe left state socialism and a new capitalist order took shape. His particular scholarly strength lay in the ability to see, behind institutional change, the deeper processes transforming social structure, elites, classes and the mechanisms of power.

The passing of Iván Szelényi is a great loss for world sociology. But his ideas live on in our research, in university courses, in discussions with new generations of sociologists, and in the very way we try to understand the great social transformations of our time.

May the memory of an outstanding sociologist, a great intellectual and a good friend of the Ukrainian sociological community be bright.

Olha Kutsenko

Vice-President of the Sociological Association of Ukraine

Iván Szelényi, Gil Eyal, Eleanor Townsley (2008). Making Capitalism without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe. Russian edition; translated from English under the guidance of I. Beliaieva, edited by O. Kutsenko. — Kyiv: Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine; V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Iván Szelényi (2015). The triple crisis of sociology. Translated by Artemii Deineka // Svoie, all-Ukrainian sociological magazine, No. 2, 14 November 2015.