Commissaries of the revolution

“I JUST told them,” says Mark Zarkhin, a Ukrainian entrepreneur, “‘If you want to go—go!’.” Mr Zarkhin’s firm runs over 200 eateries around the country; many of his staff took part in the protests that toppled Viktor Yanukovych’s corrupt regime in February. Mr Zarkhin gave them time off and kept everyone on the payroll. When the shooting started in Kiev, his pizza restaurant on Khreshchatyk, the broad avenue that bisects Independence Square (the epicentre of the revolt), was pressed into service as a shelter for the wounded.

As a military adage has it, amateurs worry about strategy, professionals, about logistics. Civil upheavals likewise turn on practicalities. From the former Soviet Union to the Middle East and beyond, businesses provide the infrastructure of revolution. They can also be its beneficiaries.