Date and Time:
Thursday, March 6, 2025, 16:00-19:30 (CET)
Venue:
ABF Stockholm, Katasalen, Sveavägen 41
The event will also be streamed online:
Save the date for the seminar “Shaping the Past – Decolonization and Memory Struggles in Russia”!
Organized by Historians without Borders in Finland, this event explores how history in and around Russia is shaped, contested, and reclaimed, focusing on decolonization, memory politics, and the agency of historians. Experts will discuss how state-driven memory policies influence public perceptions of the past and examine strategies to resist historical manipulation. Through two panel discussions, participants will explore the roles of borderlands and suppressed voices, as well as strategies for countering political distortions and defending independent research and public history.
You’re warmly welcome!
Pre-registration for the event is required.
The event is a part of History in Exile: Dialogue on Russian Memory and History Politics in the Nordic and Baltic Countries, a project launched by Historians without Borders in Finland and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project focuses on dialogue with historians and history teachers in the Nordics and Baltics on Russian history and memory politics.
Programme:
Unfortunately, due to illness, a few speakers have had to cancel their participation. Please find below the updated programme. Our apologies for the last minute changes. Thank you for your understanding!
16:00-16:05 Opening Remarks
Erkki Tuomioja, Chairman, Historians without Borders in Finland
16:05-17:05 Panel 1: Decentring Dominant Historical Narratives in and around Russia – Decolonization, Borderlands, and People
This panel explores how historical narratives in and around Russia have been shaped by imperial legacies and power structures, often marginalizing borderland regions and minority perspectives. Bringing together scholars working on decolonization, transnational histories, and local memory practices, the discussion will highlight alternative frameworks that challenge dominant state-centered interpretations.
Moderator: Daria Agapova, University of Eastern Finland
Speakers:
- Georgiy Kassianov, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin
- Yulia Gradskova, Södertörn University
17:05-17:30 Audience Q&A
An open floor discussion for the audience to ask questions.
17:30-18:00 Coffee break
18:00-19:00 Panel 2: Historians’ Response to Memory Manipulations: How to Win the Battle for the Past?
This panel examines how historians can counteract political manipulations of history and resist the instrumentalization of the past. Participants will discuss strategies for engaging the public, challenging historical distortions, and maintaining academic integrity in the face of propaganda and censorship. The discussion will explore concrete examples of memory politics in Russia and beyond, highlighting ways to defend history in an era of disinformation.
Moderator: Matthew Kott, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University
Speakers:
- Vera Dubina, Institute for European Studies at the University of Bremen
- Kari Aga Myklebost, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
- Mila Oiva, University of Turku
Irina Sandomirskaya, Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University, has cancelled her participation due to illness. She will however send a video recording of her opening statement. Mila Oiva will replace her in the panel.
19:00-19:30 Audience Q&A
An open floor discussion for the audience to ask questions.
Speakers:
Georgiy Kassianov
Georgiy Kassianov is a historian specializing in memory studies, nationalism, and contemporary Ukrainian history. He is the head of the Laboratory of International Memory Studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. His research focuses on historical memory, identity politics, and the role of history in public discourse. Kassianov has published extensively on these topics, including Memory Crash: Politics of History in and around Ukraine, 1980s–2010s (CEU Press, 2022). His work critically examines the instrumentalization of history in political and social contexts.
Yulia Gradskova
Yulia Gradskova is Associate Professor in History and Research Coordinator at the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University (Sweden). Her research interests include Soviet and postsocialist gender history, transnational history as well as decolonial perspective on Soviet politics of emancipation of “woman of the East”. Among her recent publications is the book chapter : “With the Help of the Great Russian People”: the (invisible) Whiteness of Soviet anti-colonialism and gender emancipation from Central Asia to Khartoum. (in the book edited by Baker, C., B.Iacob, A.Imre & J.Mark, Off White. Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race, Manchester University Press, 2024). She is also the author of the book Soviet Politics of Emancipation of Ethnic Minority Women. Natsionalka (Springer, 2018).
Daria Agapova
Guzel Yusupova
Guzel Yusupova is a sociologist of identity politics and nationalism with a focus on post-Soviet Eurasia. Currently she is a Humboldt Fellow at Freie Universitat Berlin. Previously Guzel has held academic appointments in Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria and the Russian Federation. Her research appeared in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Post-Soviet Affairs; Europe-Asia Studies; Ethnicities; Nations and Nationalism and others.
Moderator: Stefan Ingvarsson
Stefan Ingvarsson is an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS). Stefan Ingvarsson has a background in publishing, cultural journalism and literary translation. From 2015 to 2020 he was Cultural Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. Before that he was Artistic Director of the international festival Stockholm Literature at Moderna Museet. He sits on the board of the Baltic Writers and Translators Centre in Visby.
Irina Sandomirskaya
Irina Sandomirskaya is a professor of cultural studies at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. She specializes in 20th-century Russian culture, focusing on the theory and philosophy of language, critical theory, and the philosophy of history. Her research interests also encompass literature, cinema, historical consciousness, and cultural heritage. Among her publications are “Kniga o rodine: opyt analiza diskursivnykh praktik” (A Book on the Motherland: An Analysis of Discursive Practices, 2001) and “Past discontinuous: fragments of restoration” (2022).
Vera Dubina
Dr. Vera Dubina is a research associate at the Institute for European Studies at the University of Bremen. She specializes in Eastern European history, memory studies, and public history, with a particular focus on the memory of the Gulag. Previously, she worked as an advisor at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Moscow and co-founded Russia’s first MA program in Public History. Her recent publications include studies on silent protest in contemporary Russia and the politics of memory in post-Soviet spaces.
Kari Aga Myklebost
Kari Aga Myklebost is Professor of Russian History at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and holds the Barents Chair in Russian Studies. Her fields of expertise include 19th to 21th centuries Russian history as well as the history of Norwegian-Russian relations, with a particular focus on the northern regions and the Arctic. She is currently PI of the Norwegian Research Council-funded project Memory Politics of the North 1993–2023 | UiT, which examines memory politics and memory culture in Northwest Russia and in transborder relations between Norway and Russia throughout the post-Soviet period. Among her latest works are Minnediplomati i grenseland. De russisk-norske patriotiske minneturene 2011–2019 | Nordisk Østforum (tidsskriftet-nof.no) (2023)), and Exploiting the “white coal” of the Pasvik River. Negotiating corporate and national interests in the border region during the German occupation of Norway (tandfonline.com)(2024).
Mila Oiva
Mila Oiva, Docent of Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland, is an expert of Russian and Polish cultural history and digital research methods. Her research interests focus on the circulation of knowledge and changing perceptions of the world. She has explored these themes through a variety of case studies, ranging from 19th-century global news flows, Cold War-era transnational information circulation between Poland, the Soviet Union, and France, as well as contemporary pseudohistorical Russian internet forum discussions on medieval history. Her current research focuses on computational analysis of Soviet newsreels as well as digital cultural heritage at DIGHT-net project. Her most recent co-authored publication, ”Soviet View of the World. Exploring Long-Term Visual Patterns in “Novosti Dnia” Newsreel Journal (1945-1992)” (https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.118495) explores the official Soviet visual culture.
Moderator: Matthew Kott
Dr. Matthew Kott is a historian at Uppsala University’s Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, specializing in the 20th-century history of the Baltic Sea region, with a particular focus on Latvia. His research interests include political ideologies and their consequences, e.g. antiziganism, communism, fascism. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Baltic Studies and has previously worked on exhibitions at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Riga, and the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies, Oslo.
Erkki Tuomioja
Erkki Tuomioja is an Associate Professor of Political History, former Member of Parliament and the longest serving Foreign Minister in Finnish history, and President of the Association of Historians without Borders in Finland since its foundation in 2015. Tuomioja is the author of more than 20 books on history and current social issues.
Additional information:
Historians without Borders in Finland
hix@hwb.fi
www.historianswithoutborders.fi
