Russia: A History of Ideas

May 22–25 • St. Petersburg • Russia

Russia

A History of Ideas

A seminar on the ideas that shaped Russia

«Russia: A History of Ideas» is a seminar arranged by Arr: The Norwegian Journal of the History of Ideas. The seminar takes place at The Norwegian University Center in St. Petersburg. Participants that do not present papers are most welcome to attend the seminar.

The theme

For those following Western media coverage, Russia might seem to be both a strange and dangerous neighbour. Russian culture, the people and its leaders are portrayed simplistically in reports offering little insight. An awareness of Russian history, politics and mentality is often absent. This seminar and the following issue of «Arr: The Norwegian Journal of the History of Ideas» is an attempt to nuance shallow caricatures and to understand Russia better. Our aim is to collect articles on Russian history of ideas that shed light on the historic relations between Russia and the West, or that analyse today’s Russian self-understanding and patterns of conduct.

Read more about the theme for the seminar

Seminar programme

Presentations Monday to Wednesday • Excursions every day

9:00-09:45SEMINAR ROOM

Iver Neumann

Oslo/London

Russian Nationalism 1991–2017: Fringe to Mainstream

If Russia does nothing about the root causes of its perceived inferiority to Europe, its cyclical shifting from Westernising to xenophobia will not be broken. Read abstract.

09:45-10:00CAFETERIA

Coffee

10:00-10:45Seminar room

Jeanne Kormina

Saint Petersburg

‘The church should know its place’: cultural heritage, social protests and the limits of desecularisation in Russia

The paper offers explanations of what has made St. Issac Cathedral such an "affective place". Read abstract.

11:00-11:45Seminar room

Ilya Kalinin

Saint Petersburg/Berlin

Historical Imagination in Contemporary Russia. Russian Culture as a euphemism of Russian Empire

“Russian culture” is, in a certain sense, being transformed into a conceptual politically correct palliative or the unconscious euphemism of “Russian Empire”. Read abstract.

12:00-13:30CAFETERIA

Lunch

13:30-14:15Seminar room

Ingunn Lunde

Bergen

Eternal Past: The Role of History in Contemporary Russian Literature

The paper focuses on post-Soviet literary approaches to Vergangenheitsbewältigung – the coming to terms with the past with regard to historical events, disasters, terror or daily life. Read abstract.

14:30-19:00Saint Petersburg

Excursion: Pushkin’s Saint Petersburg

Led by Lillian Helle.

19:00Baku Restaurant

Dinner

Find the restaurant.

09:00-09:45Seminar room

Lillian Helle

Bergen

Quo vadis? Along the Russian Road from Peter the Great to Putin

The current tension between Russia and Europe is not new and can easily be recognized at least from the time of Peter the Great. I will look at such oppositions and conflicting ideas to examine how they appear in today’s political discourse. Read abstract.

09:45-10:00CAFETERIA