Archive

In her PhD research project, Tamar Khutsishvili examines land use strategies in the Armenian village of Pshatavan. The presentation seeks to understand the roots of collective memory and nostalgia among the post-Soviet generation and their effects on everyday life.

The “wild 90s” have become a trope in Russian public and political discourse to discredit democracy. We will discuss insights from the various projects that the Yeltsin Centre has developed to try and shape the memory of that era, embed these in the wider political and public context and its shift over time, and will illuminate how the wider Russian society relates to that era.

Katharina Bluhm and Ewa Dąbrowska from Freie Universität Berlin present their current research on growth strategies and welfare reforms in the Russian Federation.

8 December marks the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Soviet Union. The break-up into independent states continues to shape the region and the power structure of geopolitics to this day. Gwendolyn Sasse explains in the context of a digital journey why we urgently need to concern ourselves more with "the East".

2020 and 2021 have been turbulent and transformative years for the societies in the South Caucasus and for EU-South Caucasus relations. The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss whether the recent “resilience turn” in EU foreign policy is the right response to the aggravated challenges, and how we could understand the practical application of this new policy concept.

From the mid-1980s, the highly integrated Soviet economic space started to dissolve. We will discuss the dynamics of post-Soviet economic (dis-)integration and its consequences for Russia's significance as a regional power vis-à-vis other external players like China and the EU.

This online-workshop brings together scholars from different research fields and traditions in order to kick-off an inter-disciplinary dialogue on societal understandings, conceptions, and practices of peace, non-violence, and conflict-resolution in different post-socialist countries and spaces.

Tatiana Golova explores the dynamics of online discursive mobilisation for regional protests, focusing on the case of Khabarovsk, where in 2020 mass protests were triggered by the arrest of the then governor. In addition to reflecting on the methods used, she will present preliminary findings on specific frames.

Olga Grjasnowa reads from her latest novel ‘Der verlorene Sohn’ [The Prodigal Son] and talks to us about the illusions, fears, and hopes of people living in transcultural and transnational spaces. The evening event is part of ‘Jews Along the Silk Road’, an international conference at the Jewish Museum Berlin.

Within the framework of the three-day international conference, we would like to approach the little-known stories of flight, deportation and migration between Europe and Asia, the experiences of neighbourhood and religious everyday practices of (post-)Soviet Jews from the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The workshop brings together scholars from different regions and disciplines and intends to offer empirical work on recent developments in Belarus, its international relations and the reactions of the European Union, its member states, and European civil society to the hardening of Belarusian authoritarianism.

At a time of the proliferation of migrant, refugee and minority protests across the world, we bring together scholars who combine a focus on migrants or minorities with that on protest and activism. We focus both on the most visible struggles and everyday forms of activism, which often escape recognition.

Aleksei Balabanov’s 1997 film ‘Brat’ (Brother) is to this day a cult film in Russia. Played by the legendary Russian actor Sergei Bodrov Jr., the eponymous ‘Brother’ tries to find his place in a ruthless society in 1990s St. Petersburg. The film raises questions about the formation of national identity in Russia, but also about the fallout of the power vacuum in the early post-Soviet years.

This international workshop in cooperation with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) on 23 and 24 September 2021 addresses the question what repercussions experiences of violence and conflict have for members of migrant communities.

The terms “Twitter” or “Telegram revolution” highlight the importance of social media platforms in processes of political mobilisation. How distinctive is online activism from offline activism, and how do the two interact? Are we moving towards a new form of post-digital activism where blurred lines become the norm?

Evgeny Morozov holds the Opening Talk of Viadrinicum, an annual summer school on the Eastern Partnership countries. He outlines the contours of a political agenda that seeks to redeploy the potentials of digital infrastructures towards the goals of enhancing democratic agency, autonomy, and discovery.