Tribute to Dominique Colas (1944-2025)

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Dominique Colas, Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po, who passed away on Monday, March 10, 2025, in his eighty-first year.

A philosopher and political scientist, Dominique Colas was a prominent figure in the permanent faculty of Sciences Po.

After training as a philosopher, he dedicated his doctoral thesis—under the supervision of Maurice Duverger—to The Theory of the Revolutionary Party in Lenin’s Thought and Its Political Implications. Encouraged by Duverger to prepare for the Agrégation in Political Science, he was— in 1981—one of the first scholars to be admitted to this highly demanding and newly established competitive examination.

After serving as a Professor at the University of Nancy (1981–1990) and then at the University of Paris-Dauphine (1990–1995), Dominique Colas was elected to Sciences Po in 1995 and joined the Centre for International Studies (CERI).

Beyond his teaching duties and ongoing research, he immediately took on the responsibility, at the request of Sciences Po’s President Alain Lancelot and Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, of leading an advanced studies diploma (DEA) titled Comparative Study of Democratic Transition in Post-Communist Europe. This DEA, which frequently changed its name between 1989 and 2000, trained generations of specialists in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states.

Dominique Colas dedicated himself wholeheartedly to this task, accompanying with intelligence and foresight the profound transformations shaking the region and research field of this DEA (which became a master's program in 2003). He worked tirelessly in recruiting students, supervising their research, and supporting their professional futures.

The list of PhD graduates he mentored, guiding them toward academic careers as well as other professional fields, is particularly extensive. This was undoubtedly one of his greatest professional achievements.

Moreover, he was one of those rare professors who knew how to engage with younger students, as demonstrated by his teaching in our Undergraduate Program and the textbooks he published.

His publications, notably Le Glaive et le Fléau. Généalogie du fanatisme et de la société civile (Grasset, 1992) and Lénine politique (Fayard, 2017), received significant scholarly and public recognition. Yet, he seemed to take equal, if not greater, satisfaction in witnessing the success of those he had taught and mentored.

A passionate intellectual at the crossroads of political philosophy, sociology, and history, Dominique Colas was also the rightful heir to one of Sciences Po’s great figures, Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu (President of the École Libre des Sciences Politiques from 1906 to 1912), one of the first Slavists and a pioneer in Russian and Eastern European studies. Dominique Colas was also the director of Cahiers Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, published by Sciences Po.

A demanding and devoted servant of our institution, Dominique Colas recently gifted us with one last enlightening work, Poutine, l’Ukraine et les statues de Lénine, published by Presses de Sciences Po in 2023.

Our heartfelt thoughts go to his family, loved ones, and all those—students, colleagues, administrative staff—who knew and cherished him.

Laurence Bertrand Dorléac, President of the FNSP
Luis Vassy, President of Sciences Po