MEMORY, TRADITIONS, AND IDENTITY, St Petersburg, 11 April 2008
National Identity in Russia from 1961 : Traditions & Deterritorialisation
Conferences ‘SOVIET MEMORY’ REMEMBERING THE SOVIET UNION - MEMORY, TRADITIONS, AND IDENTITY, 1917-1991 11 April 2008 European University, St Petersburg This one-day conference - organised as part of the project ‘National Identity in Russia from 1961: Traditions and Deterritorialisation’ (www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/russian/nationalism), and to be held at the European University, 3 Gagarinskaya Street, St Petersburg - explores several themes in the history of memory and traditions in the Soviet era (including both the early Soviet and the late Soviet periods). These include: the role of memory in establishing revolutionary legitimacy; the struggle with the ‘backward’ past. and, on the other hand, the celebration of pre-revolutionary ‘Great Russian’ traditions; the heritage of pre-Soviet cultural institutions in the Soviet period and the institutionalisation of memory; cultural practices connected with the preservation and dissemination of tradition; and recollections of the past in the post-Soviet period. The working languages of the conference will be Russian and English. All are welcome to attend. Organisers: Albert Baiburin, Andy Byford, Catriona Kelly Sponsors: Arts and Humanities Research Council European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford Programme 10.00 Opening of the conference 10.20 Session 1: Revolutionary Memory Boris Kolonitsky (EU-SPb). ‘Admiral Kolchak as a “Son of Lieutenant Schmidt”’ Steve Smith (Essex) ‘The Bolsheviks and the Heritage of Popular Orthodoxy’ 11.50-12.10 Coffee break 12.10-13.40 Session 2: Institutions of Memory, Memory of Institutions Albert Baiburin (EU-SPb) ‘The Pre-History of the Soviet Passport (1918-1932)’ Catriona Kelly (Oxford) ‘“Are We to ‘Correct’ History?” Debates on the Preservation of Monuments in Leningrad, 1961-1991’ 13.40-15.00 Lunch 15.00-16.30 Session 3: Practices of Memory Boris Firsov (EU-SPb) ‘Leningrad Collectors as a Phenomenon of Cultural History’ Andy Byford (Oxford) ‘“The Last Soviet Generation” in Britain’ 16.30-16.50 Coffee break 16.50-18.20 Session 4: Narrating the Soviet Past Anna Kushkova (EU-SPb) ‘Attitudes to the Soviet Past as Expressed in Memories of Food Shortages’ Tatiana Voronina (EU-SPb) ‘Remembering the Baikal-Amur Railway Line: Autobiographical Interviews about Experiences on BAM and their Dominant Themes’