Convenors
Professor Geoffrey Hosking, Dr. Pete Duncan, Dr. Alena Ledeneva,
Dr. Wendy Slater, Dr. Andrew Wilson
This year is ten years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In the intervening period, we have lived through a variety of hopes and disappointments. We have also learnt a lot, not just about Russians and the peoples of the former Soviet Union, but also about the nature of politics and political values, the market economy and international relations, and their interactions with one another.
On 9-10 November 2001 the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London, will hold an international conference to re-evaluate the experience of that decade in order to achieve a deeper understanding of what has happened. We shall be endeavouring to assess what we have learnt from the lessons of the post-Soviet years which can contribute to our theoretical and practical repertoire in the social sciences and contemporary history. Papers will be given by leading international experts in their fields. Sheila Fitzpatrick (Chicago) will give an opening address, looking back on the Soviet heritage, and Geoffrey Hosking (SSEES-UCL) a closing one, summing up the main findings of the conference.
For further information please contact Amy Warner at:
a.warner@ssees.ucl.ac.uk (e-mail), (+44) 020 7862 8517 (telephone).
| 9.30 | Session 1: Keynote Address |
| Sheila Fitzpatrick (Dept. of History, University of Chicago) on the legacy of the USSR. | |
| 10.30 - 12.30 | Session 2: The Political Economy of Post-Socialism |
| How successfully has a market economy been grafted on to ex-Soviet economic systems? | |
| How Russia Really Works: Towards an Understanding of the Informal Order Alena Ledeneva (SSEES, UCL) |
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| Does History Explain Russia's Relative Underperformance in the Economic Transition? Jacek Rostowski (Dept. of Economics, Central European University, Budapest) |
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| Globalization and Post Communism Peter Rutland (Government Department, Wesleyan University) |
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| 1.30 - 3.30 | Session 3: Political and Civic Culture |
| How much change has there been in the political and civic culture since the end of the Soviet Union? | |
| Censorship and Restrictions on Freedom of Speech Martin Dewhirst (Dept. of Slavonic Studies, University of Glasgow) |
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| Kazakhstan's Management of Ethnic Relations: Assessment and Prospects Bhavna Dave (School of Oriental and African Studies) |
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| Law Reform and Civic Culture William Butler (Dept. of Laws, UCL) |
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| 4.00 - 6.00 | Session 4: Reinventing Russia |
| Is there a post-imperial Russian identity? What is the relationship between the Russian Federation and Russian nationhood? | |
| Ethnic and Civic Dimensions of Post-Communist Russian Nationhood Vera Tolz (Dept of Politics and Contemporary History, University of Salford) |
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Relics, Remains and Revisionism, the Use of Nicolas II in Post Soviet Russia Wendy Slater (SSEES, UCL) |
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| Rival Versions of East Slavic Identity in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus Andrew Wilson (SSEES, UCL) |
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| 7.30 | Conference Dinner |
| The Terrace Restaurant, UCL | |
| After dinner talk given by Stephen Dalziel (BBC Russian Affairs Analyst) on 'Reporting Post-Soviet Russia' | |
| 10.00 - 12.00 | Session 5: Regionalism |
| Has regional autonomy disabled the central state? | |
| Administrative Regions in relation to the Economy and to the State Philip Hanson (Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham) |
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| Politics Beyond the Garden Ring: Rethinking the Post-Soviet Experience Vladimir Gelman (European University, St Petersburg) |
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| 1.30 - 3.30 | Session 6: Relations of Ex-Soviet Republics with International Institutions |
| Why did 'new thinking' and the 'common European home' not work out? | |
| Transactions in the U.S. Russia Relationship: representational fraud, shifting agency and Russia's decline Janine Wedel (Dept of Sociology, Georgetown University, Washington DC) |
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| Russian Foreign Policy: the First Ten Years Margot Light (Dept of International Relations, LSE) |
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| 3.50 - 5.30 | Session 7: Peacekeeping and Geopolitics |
| Has Russia shown that an alternative view of peacekeeping can work? How did fifteen sovereign states overcome the imperial nexus? | |
| Anatol Lieven (Carnegie Endowment, Washington DC) | |
| Eurasian Conflicts and de facto States Dov Lynch (King's College, London) |
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| Westernism, Eurasianism and Pragmatism: The Foreign Policies of the Post Soviet States, 1991-2001 Pete Duncan (SSEES, UCL) |
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| 5.30 - 6.00 | Closing Remarks |
| Geoffrey Hosking (SSEES, UCL) | |