International Research Conference in Russia

St. Petersburg (Russia),  May 30-31, 2013

Program

This international research conference builds off of the Faculty’s prior success hosting an international conference in October 2010 dedicated to the study of late Stalinism and the epoch of N.S. Khrushchev and it hopes to continue its scientific dialogue with historians from different countries who also study Russia’s contemporary history.
The creation and development of the Russian state remain questions of great importance even as they have been studied in many ways by Russian historians and their foreign colleagues.
The year 2013 should attract the attention of historians for it was 100 years ago that a period of relatively stable growth ended and the First World War and Bolshevik Revolution brought a new era of development for Russia.

The conference’s Organizing Committee invites you to take part in the discussion of questions that remain hotly debated especially as the Russian Federation continues to experience developments connected to the ongoing formation of a new form of statehood.
During the conference’s proceedings, the Organizing Committee hopes to examine problems as Russia’s revolutions and wars of the 20th and 21st Centuries, the transformations of the political system, the economy, and society, the problems building a nation-state and the collapse of states and finally the issues involving culture including relationships between the intelligentsia, the authorities, and the people.

This conference has already received support from the St. Petersburg City Government’s Committee for External Ties as well as the B.N. Yeltsin Presidential Library.

The language of the conference is Russian.

How to participate to the Conference

The scholars selected to present at the conference may elect to have the Organizing Committee translate their presentations from their language of choice to Russian in the months prior to the conference’s taking place. The articles off of which these presentations are based may also be translated into Russian if they are selected for publication in a conference compendium to appear at a later date.

The Organizing Committee plans to take upon itself the costs of two-nights lodging plus breakfast for those scholars selected to participate in the conference.

If you are interested in participating, please send a short e-mail in English or Russian explaining your presentation topic by January 1st, 2013 to Dr. Ludmila K. Riabova, (e-mail: lryabovaspb@gmail.com).
Organizer and Partners

St. Petersburg State University’s Faculty of History

Information & contacts

Dr. Martin J. Blackwell
Associate Professor of History
Dept. of History and Anthropology

address: Gainesville State / U. System of Georgia, 3820 Mundy Mill Rd., Oakwood, Georgia 30566

Cold War International History Project “e-Dossiers” present new and important accessions to the CWIHP Digital Archive. New documents are added to the Digital Archive and introduced by leading scholars of Cold War history, who provide background and context for this new archival evidence. The views expressed in these introductions are the authors’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Cold War International History Project. The e-Dossier series is made possible by generous support from the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

e-Dossier No. 39 – Poland and Romania: The Loyal Republic and the Maverick
By Adam Burakowski

This is a selection of the most interesting documents produced by the Embassy of the Polish People’s Republic in Bucharest from 1968 to 1977. The first date is a watershed, as in 1968, due to the developments in Czechoslovakia and the position of the Romanian leadership on the events, the Embassy greatly intensified its activity and began to prepare more detailed reports. The year 1977, on the other side, is important because of the internal collapse in Romania, exacerbated by a giant earthquake in Bucharest, the emergence of an organized democratic opposition and the mass strikes of miners in the Jiu Valley.

e-Dossier No. 38 – Romania Security Policy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
By Larry Watts
CWIHP is pleased to announce the release of ten new documents translated into English for the first time. Larry L. Watts introduces the documents and explains how the Cuban Missile Crisis was critical in reorienting Romanian foreign and security policies in a manner that caused significant shifts in the nature of the Cold War regionally and globally.

e-Dossier No. 37 – KGB/Stasi Cooperation
Walter Süß and Douglas Selvage
CWIHP is pleased to announce the addition of 9 new document to its online Digital Archive. Released in cooperation with the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, the new translations feature meetings between the highest levels of the Stasi and the KGB.

Paul Bushkovitch

Breve storia della Russia. Dalle origini a Putin

Breve storia della Russia ricostruisce non solo la storia politica ma anche gli sviluppi nel campo della letteratura, dell’arte e della scienza della Russia; ritrae cosí protagonisti di grandezza assoluta – Tolstoj, Cechov e Mendeleev, per esempio – nei loro contesti storici e istituzionali. Benché la Rivoluzione del 1917, il successivo sistema sovietico e la guerra fredda siano stati momenti cruciali della storia russa e mondiale, merito specifico dell’autore è di presentare anche le epoche precedenti in tutta la loro complessità e ricchezza storica e culturale.

Accessibile a studenti, turisti e al pubblico in generale, questo libro offre un’ampia panoramica della storia della Russia dal IX secolo a oggi. Paul Bushkovitch sottolinea i fondamentali mutamenti di prospettiva nella comprensione della realtà russa che hanno avuto luogo con il crollo dell’Unione Sovietica del 1991. Da allora le enormi quantità di materiale documentale venuto alla luce, relativo alla storia dell’epoca sovietica, hanno consentito di elaborare nuove concezioni storico-critiche dello stesso passato della Russia pre-rivoluzionaria.

Giulio Einaudi Editore

La rubrica Sfogliando la Russia, Periodico di segnalazione delle novità editoriali russe a cura di Daniela Barsocchi, è consultabile online sul nostro sito.

Sfogliando la Russia è un progetto nato da circa un anno per volontà di Daniela Barsocchi (Coordinatrice nazionale delle associazioni Italia- Russia) di diffondere la letteratura russa, ancora oggi poco seguita in Italia, nonostante un progressivo aumento delle traduzioni letterarie.

Collaborano al periodico professori di Lingua e Letteratura Russa, di Scienze Politiche, storici e traduttori.

Sfogliando la Russia 3/2013

Sfogliando la Russia 2/2013

 Sfogliando la Russia 1/2013

Sfogliando la Russia 23!

Sfogliando la Russia 22

 Sfogliando la Russia 21.

Sfogliando la Russia 20

Sfogliando la Russia 19

Sfogliando la Russia 18

Sfogliando la Russia 17

Sfogliando la Russia 16

Sfogliando la Russia 15

Sfogliando la Russia 14

Sfogliando la Russia 13

Sfogliando la Russia 12

Sfogliando la Russia 11

Sfogliando la Russia 10

Sfogliando la Russia 9

Sfogliando la Russia 8

Sfogliando la Russia 7

Sfogliando la Russia 6

Sfogliando la Russia 5

Sfogliando la Russia 4

Sfogliando la Russia 3

Sfogliando la Russia 2

Sfogliando la Russia 1

Прошлое, настоящее, будущее ислама в России: Между наукой и общественными дискурсами

Lundi 22 avril 2013

EHESS, salle 640 – 190-8 avenue de France
Paris, France (75013)

La situation politique, économique et sociale de la Russie a été marquée depuis le milieu des années 2000 par une remontée de la xénophobie, dans son expression islamophobe en particulier, dont maints observateurs donnent pour raison l’intensification récente des migrations de travail en provenance du Caucase (Nord et Sud) et de l’Asie Centrale anciennement soviétiques. Ces trois dernières années, en outre, les lendemains de “printemps arabes” créaient dans l’opinion russe l’impression, entretenue par le pouvoir politique et les média, d’une coalition d’intérêts antirusses au Proche-Orient alliant puissances occidentales et pays de la péninsule Arabique soutenant l’aile la plus religieuse des mouvements révolutionnaires sunnites actuels.

Ces évolutions récentes sont venues se greffer sur un substrat particulièrement délétère créé par les deux guerres de Tchétchénie dans les années 1990 et le renforcement de la « lutte contre l’extrémisme » islamique dans les années qui ont suivi le 11 septembre. En 2012, l’extension de la violence publique à des régions de Russie épargnées jusqu’alors par le terrorisme — vers la Moyenne-Volga spécialement, avec les attentats simultanés contre le mufti et le vice-mufti du Tatarstan en juillet de l’année dernière — n’a pas contribué à apaiser les esprits. Le climat particulier créé par cet ensemble d’évolutions n’a pas permis l’apparition d’un discours public dépassionné sur l’islam et sur les musulmans de Russie. Et ce ne sont pas les innombrables rivalités de personnes et de tendances dont le champ religieux multiconfessionnel de la Russie est le théâtre depuis la fin de la période soviétique qui paraissent susceptibles d’améliorer les choses.

Dans ce contexte, la recherche en histoire et en sciences sociales sur l’islam en Russie, ouverte depuis un quart de siècle aux chercheurs internationaux, s’est distinguée à la fois par une extrême diversification d’approches et de méthodes (si on la compare, en particulier, aux pratiques orientées de l’époque soviétique) et par l’émergence de nouveaux obstacles, parmi lesquels les chercheurs eux-mêmes mentionnent souvent :

les lignes politiques imposées par le Kremlin et les pouvoirs régionaux et locaux (construction d’une “nation russe” une et indivisible ; promotion de la “tolérance” interconfessionnelle, stigmatisant en fait les mouvements hostiles à l’establishment religieux hérité de l’URSS ; extrême méfiance à l’encontre des pratiques souvent traditionnelles portées par les populations migrantes d’arrivée très récente en provenance du Caucase et de l’Asie Centrale ; nombreux amalgames entre des formes de pratique et de pensée religieuse islamique en fait extrêmement diverses voire mutuellement incompatibles ; etc.) ;
les remises en cause ouverte des principes de laïcité proclamés par l’administration Eltsine en 1990 mais piétinés par la même administration dès 1997, au lendemain de la défaite russe contre la Tchétchénie ;
les exigences croissantes du pouvoir judiciaire civil russe sur la définition d’un “bon” et d’un “mauvais” islam, avec une large participation des experts du fait religieux (et d’une partie de la recherche publique) dans des débats de plus en plus ouvertement théologiques ;
les interventions croissantes des establishments religieux orthodoxe et musulman dans le champ politique, notamment contre leurs rivaux des réseaux missionnaires transnationaux chrétiens et musulmans ;
les rivalités entre groupes de fidèles intensifiées par la privatisation et la “restitution” depuis 1993 des “biens de l’Eglise” ainsi que la collecte de la dîme musulmane (zakat) — dans les régions pétrolifères en particulier, comme le Tatarstan gagné par la violence publique ; etc.
le rejet par une parte de la jeunesse musulmane pratiquante de ces establishments (qu’il s’agisse des muftiyyat omniprésentes dans le débat public comme des voies soufies traditionnelles qui leur sont souvent, en fait, étroitement alliées).

Toutes raisons pour lesquelles il nous a semblé opportun de réunir un groupe de chercheurs de disciplines et d’intérêts variés pour nous interroger ensemble sur les acquis, les enjeux et les problèmes de la recherche actuelle sur l’islam en Russie. Ce que nous nous proposons de faire à la fois d’un point de vue épistémologique, mais aussi en tenant le plus large compte des impacts du cadre institutionnel changeant de la recherche sur les contenus de cette dernière. En tenant compte aussi de la position du chercheur comme citoyen et de la très large participation des experts académique à la réélaboration constante du discours public sur l’islam et les musulmans en Russie aujourd’hui.

Chaque participant à la table ronde sera donc invité à proposer une réflexion à la fois : sur l’évolution de sa discipline et de ses thèmes de recherche propres au cours de la décennie écoulée, en tenant compte du changement politique global de la Russie pendant cette période ; sur les résultats et perspectives offerts par cette évolution, mais aussi sur les obstacles constatés et lacunes récurrentes ; sur sa position voire son expérience personnelle comme expert du fait religieux sollicité, ou non, par les pouvoirs publics, d’une part, par le monde associatif de l’autre.

Non destinée à une publication à court terme, la table ronde et ses débats doivent servir de substrat à l’élaboration d’un projet de recherche collectif sur l’expertise du fait religieux dans l’ancien monde soviétique à l’horizon 2014-17. Ils seront suivis en 2014 de plusieurs invitations de chercheurs de Russie et d’ailleurs pouvant être regroupées à nouveau sous forme d’atelier collectif. Les résultats de ces deux rencontres pourraient faire l’objet d’une publication en volume à l’horizon 2015, en prélude au projet de recherche en gestation.
Programme

09h30 : Michel Wieviorka (EHESS/FMSH) : Ouverture

09h45 : Stéphane A. Dudoignon (CNRS/CETOBAC) : Dialectique du “bon” et du “mauvais” islam : quelques contributions russes aux débats actuels
10h00 : Vladimir Bobrovnikov (Institut des études orientales, Moscou & FMSH) : Textes, gens et choses dans le discours public sur l’islam de Russie

10h45 : pause café

11h00 : Rafik Mukhametshin (Université islamique de Russie, Kazan & IISMM) : Les universités islamiques, la recherche et le discours public sur l’islam en Russie
11h45 : Ilnur Minnullin (Institut d’histoire, Kazan & FMSH) : Chercher trace du soufisme en Russie soviétique : ressources et méthodes

12h30 : pause déjeuner

14h00 : Shamil Shikhaliev (Université de la Ruhr, Bochum & FMSH) : Modernisation soviétique et diffusion du soufisme : de quelques paradoxes de l’histoire contemporaine
14h45 : Güzel Sabirova (Centre d’étude sur la jeunesse, Haute école des études économiques de Saint-Pétersbourg) : Faire la sociologie de l’islam en Russie : quelques problèmes et perspectives

15h30 : Pause café

15h45 : Sophie Roche (ZMO, Berlin) : Comment faire l’anthropologie d’un islam non observé ? La Russie, “son” islam, ses migrants
16h30 : Aude Merlin (Université libre de Bruxelles) : L’islam comme enjeu de mobilisation politique : le cas tchétchène (à travers quelques observations récentes)

The Historia Nova Prize for the Best Book on Russian Intellectual History.

The jury will consider titles originally written and published in English within the preceding two years (2011-2012).

The range of acceptable genres includes
• single and collective-author monographs,
• collections of articles,
• and special and thematic issues of scholarly journals.

We encourage nominations from publishers, literary agencies, universities and university departments, journals, scholarly organizations, artistic unions, groups, and individuals.

The winner will be announced in November 2013 during the ASEEES conference in Boston, MA
and will receive a prize of $5,000 USD.

Please make all nominations by June 1, 2013 to the email address historianova@academicstudiespress.com

www.historia-nova.com

Eugenio Di Rienzo, Emilio Gin

Le Potenze dell’Asse e l’Unione Sovietica 1939-1945

Secondo una consolidata tradizione storiografica, il Trattato Molotov-Ribbentrop dell’agosto 1939 fu un provvisorio accomodamento attraverso il quale il Cremlino guadagnò il tempo sufficiente per prepararsi a sconfiggere il Moloch nazista. Gli autori di questo volume presentano un’interpretazione alternativa a questa vulgata. Fino all’autunno 1940, il vero Patto d’Acciaio non fu, infatti, quello tra Roma e Berlino ma quello tra Berlino e Mosca che avrebbe dovuto trasformarsi in una “Coalizione planetaria” destinata a comprendere anche Italia e Giappone e a distruggere il predominio mondiale anglosassone. Anche quando nel giugno 1941 le colonne corazzate tedesche irruppero in territorio sovietico, il filo nero dei rapporti tra Urss e Asse non s’interruppe. Contatti sotterranei e clandestini proseguirono fino alla fine del 1944 grazie alla mediazione del Giappone per arrivare a una pace di compromesso tra il colosso comunista e l’Europa sottomessa al Nuovo Ordine nazista.

Rubettino editore

International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine – Mykolaiv (Ukraine)
The application must be sent by e-mail to ukrainesummerschool@gmail.com, by 30 April 2013.

http://www.ukrainianstudies.uottawa.ca/summer_school_2013.html

The 5th Annual International Social Science School, to be held in Mykolaiv, Southern Ukraine, on 2-9 July 2013, will have the theme of “Challenging the Social Order: Revolution, Reform and Transformation Under and After Socialism.” For an intensive week in early July, an international group of twenty doctoral students and up to a dozen faculties are converging to a different town in Ukraine to hear and discuss presentations on ongoing research on a critical theme. The Summer School is designed to be interdisciplinary and international and follows the format of a Workshop. The program also includes lectures and field trips, of historical and contemporary significance, within the region.

Co-Sponsored by The Embassy of France in Ukraine – The Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa (Canada)  – The Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] (France) – The Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University in Mykolaiv (Ukraine) – The Doctoral School of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine) – The University of Paris Ouest Nanterre-La Défense (France) – The Franco-Belarusian Center for European Studies (Belarus)
Program description

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. 6

The countries of the former Socialist Bloc have repeatedly experienced throughout the last century the difficult, perilous and uncertain task Machiavelli warns us against. Building, managing and deconstructing socialist states and societies appears to be a circular process of radical social and economic transformation. Thus, collectivization, arguably one of the most ambitious attempts implemented by a state to alter the socio-economic order, can be been as a starting point for major crises such as famines, population displacement and deportation, and the disruption of the countryside. Perestroika, enacted as a response to the decline of the Soviet economy, served as a catalyst for painful transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe, the introduction of neoliberal reforms and steep rise of social inequalities. Similarly, Soviet informal practices have been interpreted both as a reaction to the deep economic crisis of the late 1980s and as constituting a major cause of yet another crisis, the failure of the rule of state and economic transition.

These challenges to the social order have had seminal political consequences, such as Soviet industrialization and the rise of Stalinism, the post-war establishment of Communist rule in Central Europe, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the introduction of political pluralism under perestroika, the August 1991 putsch and the collapse of the Soviet Union, shock therapy, the 1998 financial crises in Russia, the colored revolutions and the return of authoritarianism.

The Summer School seeks to examine these moments of disruption of the existing social order when state and society are challenged in their institutions, rules, values and principles. Topics under consideration include:

the causes and dynamics of revolution, reform and transformation
mobilization, protest and rebellion
the management of social or political crisis
the production of new norms (informal, legal, economic, political)
the impact of dominant economic models
the management of the past: transitional justice, lustration, the politics of memory
how individuals and groups adapt to a new social order: career paths, survival strategies

The Fifth International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine welcomes proposals from the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and adjacent fields. While the primary focus will be on the socialist and post-socialist era (in the former Soviet Union, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe), pre-Soviet history may also be examined.

The Summer School is designed to be interdisciplinary and international and follows the format of a Workshop. Each participant will have the opportunity to present a paper and receive comments from a group of international scholars, as well as from the other participants, who are expected to be active in these discussions. The School’s program consists of lectures, panel presentations and discussions, as well field trips within the region.
Location

The International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine takes places in a different city of Ukraine every year. Previous schools have been held in Uman (2009), Dnipropetrovsk (2010), Ostroh (2011) and Zhytomyr (2012). The 2013 Summer School will be hosted by the Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University in Mykolaiv, Southern Ukraine.

The history of Mykolaiv, located on the Black Sea Cost, about 110 kilometers east-northeast of Odessa, is closely linked to its Port. The Port of Nikolaev is an important river port and one of Ukraine’s largest and busiest ship-building centers. After the Russian Empire annexed the Black Sea coast in 1788, the Port of Mykolaiv was founded as a shipyard near the site of the ancient Greek Olbia. Originally built for repair of Russian Navy ships during the Russo-Turkish War, the Port of Mykolaiv was opened as a commercial harbor in 1862, and the first foreign ships were welcomed into the port. This also led to the establishment of several foreign consulates in Mykolaiv. In the early 19th century, as with most urban areas in Ukraine, Mykolaiv developed into one of the largest Jewish centers in the Russian Empire and was the birthplace of the the seventh leader in the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty.

In the Soviet era, Mykolaiv was a major shipbuilding center, closely linked to the military industry. The shipbuilding industry provided about 60% of Mykolaiv citizens with work. Because of this military orientation, the Port of Mykolaiv was closed to foreign visitors through the late 1980s. Most of the tragic events of the past century echoed in Mykolaiv’s history, such as the Civil War, the famine, the purges, German occupation and the Holocaust.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the industrial city of Mykolaiv faced a huge economic crisis. Most of the state-owned military-oriented industries faced restructuring and/or privatization, with unequal suc3 Fifth International Social Science Summer School in Ukraine cess. New branches of economy appeared. The image of the city is also evolving, sometimes in unexpected ways: the past city of shipbuilders became “the city of brides” with the development of foreign-oriented marriage agencies. In November 2012, the city was also in the center of the political news : the election vote count led to bloody clashes in Mykolaiv Oblast’s Pervomaisk, where pro-government and opposition candidates were both claiming victory in district 132.

A city of glory and a city in crisis, Mykolaiv is a perfect place for a Summer School focused on the challenges of a new social order.

Excursions and meeting organized by the Summer School team will focus on these different dimensions of the regional history.
Duration

One week, Tuesday 2 July – Tuesday 9 July 2013.
Call for application
Eligibility

The Summer School is open to PhD students (or students enrolled in a kandidat nauk program) and young researchers (up to six years removed from their PhD or kandidat nauk degree).

Proposals strong on theory and empirical research are particularly welcomed.

The working language of the Summer School is English.

Prospective participants must be fluent in English. Selected candidates will be notified before the end of May.
How to apply?

To be considered for the Summer School, candidates must complete an application form (that includes a 500 word project proposal) and add a CV.

They are also encouraged to send an additional written sample, such as a conference paper, a dissertation chapter, or a publication, although this is optional.

The application must be sent by e-mail to ukrainesummerschool@gmail.com,
by 30 April 2013.

The application form can be requested at ukrainesummerschool@gmail.com or downloaded on the following address: http://www.ukrainianstudies. uottawa.ca/summer_school_2013.html
The scientific committee is being set up.

Stefano Pisu

Stalin a Venezia
L’Urss alla Mostra del cinema fra diplomazia culturale e scontro ideologico (1932-1953)

Che ruolo hanno avuto le relazioni politico-diplomatiche nell’organizzazione dei Festival internazionali del cinema nel XX secolo? Come si declinò il confronto fra capitalismo e socialismo in un ambito, quello cinematografico, che conteneva in sé anche aspetti artistici, industriali e commerciali? Il presente volume risponde a questi quesiti ponendosi nella specifica prospettiva dell’Urss alla Mostra di Venezia fra il 1932 e il 1953. L’interpretazione soprattutto ideologico-politica data dai sovietici alla Mostra trovò espressione emblematica nel 1946, con la presentazione del film Kljatva (Il giuramento) di Michail Čiaureli, in cui appare da protagonista il personaggio di Stalin. Attraverso un’ampia selezione di documenti d’archivio russi e italiani, il volume evidenzia il ruolo dei Festival internazionali del cinema quali laboratorio dove sperimentare quella rete di connessioni e contrapposizioni alla base del sistema delle relazioni culturali internazionali in vent’anni cruciali per la storia del XX secolo.

Rubettino editore

StoricaMente Numero 9 – 2013

 L’Italia e il blocco sovietico fra antagonismo politico e cooperazione economica

I saggi del dossier presentano quattro ricerche, sviluppatesi autonomamente negli ultimi anni ma legate da un intreccio di tematiche e visioni interpretative comuni, il cui obiettivo è di contribuire al rinnovamento tematico e metodologico della ricerca sulla guerra fredda e la posizione dell’Italia nel sistema internazionale postbellico, che rappresenta una tematica centrale per lo studio dell’Italia contemporanea, un paese profondamente diviso che si trovò dopo il 1948 in prima linea nel confronto ideologico Est-Ovest, del quale ebbe a soffrire ma anche a beneficiare per decenni. I saggi che sottoponiamo all’attenzione del lettore spaziano dall’indagine delle relazioni internazionali alla storia politica ed economica e si concentrano sulle strategie italiane di adattamento agli equilibri della guerra fredda.

Indice

Stefano Bottoni
Premessa

Stefano Santoro
Partito comunista italiano e “socialismo reale”
I casi romeno e polacco

Stefano Bottoni
I rapporti commerciali italo-ungheresi durante la guerra fredda
Convergenze parallele?

Valentina Fava
La Fiat e la AutoVAZ di Togliatti
Alla ricerca del fordismo perduto

Alessandro Salacone
Le relazioni italo-sovietiche nel decennio 1958-1968
Uno sguardo da Mosca