IS[R]A Newsletter, May 2007

NEWS FROM ISRA MEMBERS

25 Years Research Centre for East European Studies in Bremen
14th of June 2007, Bremen Upper Town Hall
11 a.m.
Opening speech: Willi Lemke, Senat of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen
Prof. Dr. Winfried Müller, Rector of the University Bremen
Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth, ret. President of the German Bundestag a.D. and President of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde

Ceremonial speech: Prof. Dr. Bronis?aw Geremek, Member of the European Parliament
Music: Judit Rajk (contralto) and Andras Wilheim (piano), Budapest
Laudation: Prof. Dr. Lilia Shevtsova, Vice-Director of the Carnegie Foundation, Moscow
Speech: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Eichwede, Director of the Research Centre for Eastern Europe

1 p.m.
Reception by the Senat of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen

5:30 p.m.
Roundtable Discussion, Upper Town Hall:
"Eastern Europe Today: Messages and Prospects for Europe"
Guests on the podium: W?adys?aw Bartoszewski, Marianne Birthler, Gábor Demszky, Bronis?aw Geremek, Ji?í Gruša, Grigorij Javlinskij, Doris Liebermann, György Konrád, Sergej Kovalev, Irina Prochorowa, Arsenij Roginskij, Helga Trüpel.
Moderated by Wolfgang Eichwede

CONFERENCE

The Other Europe - from the 1960s to the 1980s. Dissent in Politics and Society, Cultural Alternatives.
June 15th - 16th, 2007
University of Bremen Institut für Wissenstransfer, IW3

Friday, June 15th

Opening speech by Wolfgang Eichwede, Research Centre for East European Studies at University of Bremen Contradictions of the Systems, Dissent in the Societies

Panel 1: Political Systems: Functional Deficiencies, Reform Fragments and Patterns of Repression

Chair: Dieter Senghaas, University of Bremen

Klaus von Beyme, University of Heidelberg

Modernization in the 1970s and 1980s. Necessities and Constraints

Peter Reddaway, George Washington University, Washington

Patterns in Soviet Policies towards Dissent. 1956 - 1988

Ji?í P?ibá?, Cardiff University

Political Dissent and Legality in Communist Regimes

Ivo Bock, Research Centre for East European Studies at Bremen University

Institutional Change of Censorship: USSR and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s to the 1980s

Panel 2: Conformity and Dissent in Socialist Societies

Chair: Martin Schulze Wessel, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

Boris Dubin, VTsIOM, Moscow

Rossija kak adaptirujuscijsja socium. Massovaja udovletvorennost’, formy nedovolstva, granicy protesta.( Russia as an Adapting Society. Mass Contentment, Forms of Discontent, Limits of Protest)

Malte Rolf, Humboldt-University, Berlin

White Shirts on the 1st of May! Cultural Conventions and Unconventional Cultures in the Postwar Soviet Union

Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, BStU, Berlin

Society and Opposition in the GDR

Tomáš Vilímek, Institute for Contemporary History, Prague Becoming a Dissident. Pathways into Confrontation with the Regimes in Czechoslovakia and the GDR

Saturday, June 16th

Panel 3: Pluralisation of Public Spheres

Chair: Dietrich Beyrau, University of Tuebingen

Egbert Jahn, University of Mannheim

The Cautious Pluralization of the Political Meaning in the Soviet Union since the 1960s

Jan Pauer, Research Centre for East European Studies at Bremen University

Dissent and Independent Public Spheres in GDR and Czechoslovakia

Ann Komaromi, University of Toronto

Samizdat Periodicals and Publics

Wolfgang Kissel, University of Bremen

Samizdat and the Erosion of the Soviet Canon of Literature

Panel 4: Resistance Movements and Cultural Alternatives from a Historical Perspective

Chair: Wolfgang Eichwede, Research Centre for East European Studies at Bremen University

Melanie Tatur, University of Frankfurt a.M. ”Learning“ through Social Movement? - The Solidarno?? as „Symbolic Breakthrough “ - from Today’s View

Barbara Falk, University of Toronto Between Past and Future: Central European Dissent in Historical Perspective

Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Historicizing Soviet Dissent: Between Embeddedness and Seclusion

Georg Witte, Free University, Berlin

Interference-writing. Samizdat as Poetical Medium

Concluding remarks: Wolfgang Eichwede

Call for papers

TACTICS of RESISTANCE: LIMITATIONS & POSSIBILITIES

An interdisciplinary graduate conference hosted by the Centre for the

Study of Theory and Criticism, University of Western Ontario, Canada

October 12-13, 2007

The aim of this conference is to discuss various forms of resistance.

Considering late capitalism's ability to accommodate sites of

resistance and the ensuing incapacitation of revolutionary tactics and

impulses, we are faced with the questions: Where can we find sites of

resistance today? How do social, cultural and political constraints

impact on the prospects of emerging forms of resistance? Must tactics

always remain 'marginal,' situational and contextual?

We are looking for papers addressing alternative conceptions and

frameworks of resistance, and their potential for revolutionary

change. We welcome students, professors, artists and activists to

re-think resistance through an interdisciplinary alliance.

Accordingly, we are seeking contributions in the form of papers that

question, re-articulate and address a variety of issues, including

(but not limited to) citizenship, belonging, community, integration,

dissent, consensus, avant-garde and political subversions.

Presentations will emerge from (and beyond) the following fields:

anthropology, political science, sociology, nationalism and

transatlantic studies, first nations and diaspora studies, critical

theory, postcolonial studies, law, philosophy, feminist and gender

studies, comparative literature, architecture, film and media studies,

and visual arts.

The following is a selection of perspectives this conference will

attempt to bring together for fruitful dialogue:

- interdisciplinarity as an academic tactic

- redefining nationhood

- issues of resistance: class, citizenship and migration

- dissemination of local resistance

- global, local and transnational dynamics of resistance

- First nations and the politics of citizenship

- feminist critiques of the narratives of resistance

- tactics of engagement

- humour, mimicry, parody, irony as tactic

- visual culture as a site of confrontation

- the power of subaltern knowledge

- the political unconscious

- resisting/existing queer identities

- artistic interventions

- resisting resistance

- the (im)possibility of transgression.

Please send abstracts of 250-300 words by August 6, 2007 to:

confrontationsconf[at]gmail.com. Please include your academic or

activist affiliation in your proposal, as well as keywords and an

applicable area for your topic.

Unfortunately, the conference cannot cover travel or accommodation

costs for the presenters. We strongly encourage our participants to

apply for funding at their home institutions. Do not hesitate to

contact us if you have any questions.

Yours truly,

Conference organizers.

Centre for the Study of Theory & Criticism

The University of Western Ontario Room 2345,

Somerville House London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada

http://www.uwo.ca/theory

2nd Call for Papers

REVISITING PERESTROIKA - PROCESSES AND ALTERNATIVES

November 29 - December 1, 2007

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007

NEWS

The Aleksanteri CULTURAL FORA: Parallel to the academic conference,

participants and guests will enjoy a new international series of

cultural events - artistic, documentary, archival, literary and

cinematic. See the website for the 6 fora already confirmed:

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007/cultural_fora.htm

POSTER: A new pdf poster may be found at the below link from our

website. It is designed for A3 printing, although A4 is also possible.

Please send your postal address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to receive a

hard-copy colour print:

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007/files/poster_alexconf.pdf

DEADLINE

It is less than two weeks to our first deadline for submissions: June 1,

2007.

Ivor A Stodolsky

Researcher, Russian Culture and Theory

Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki University

Aleksanteri Conference Coordinator / Curator of the Aleksanteri Cultural

Fora

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007

http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007/cultural_fora.htm

Institute: +358 3 191 23631

INTERNET REVIEW

From SAMIZDATA.NET

De-nazification and de-communisation

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2007/05/denazification.html

Perry de Havilland (London)

In Poland a court has ruled that the governments attempts at de-communisation are unconstitutional.

The law required some 700,000 people, including school directors and board members of public companies, to submit statements declaring any contact they had had with the communist secret services.

The court rejected key aspects of the law including the requirement for journalists to submit declarations. [...] "A state based on the rule of law should not fulfill a craving for revenge instead of fulfilling justice," he said. "Screening must not be used for meting out punishment."

But surely justice cannot be served by allowing the communist era and above all, the role of the people who made it all possible, to vanish down the memory hole. If people did despicable things during the communist era, why should they escape punishment? I cannot imagine a German court being allowed to stop the process of de-nazification in German, so why tolerate something similar in Poland in the aftermath of communism?

Forgiveness can not come before repentance and a lot of people have yet to repent. I wonder if there are any senior judges who might have an embarrassing file on their communist era activities that they would rather not see the light of day? Just wondering.

A jiggsaw puzzle of historical importance

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2007/05/a_jiggsaw_puzzl.html

Adriana Lukas (London)

I thought this is one of the cases where technology is nothing but good news...

German researchers said Wednesday that they were launching an attempt to reassemble millions of shredded East German secret police files using complicated computerized algorithms. The files were shredded as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and it became clear that the East German regime was finished. Panicking officials of the Stasi secret police attempted to destroy the vast volumes of material they had kept on everyone from their own citizens to foreign leaders.

Some 16,250 sacks containing pieces of 45 million shredded documents were found and confiscated after the reunification of Germany in 1990. Reconstruction work began 12 years ago but 24 people have been able to reassemble the contents of only 323 sacks.

Using algorithms developed 15 years ago to help decipher barely legible lists of Nazi concentration camp victims, each individual strip of the shredded Stasi files will be scanned on both sides. The data then will be fed into the computer for interpretation using color recognition; texture analysis; shape and pattern recognition; machine and handwriting analysis and the recognition of forged official stamps

Until I read the final paragraph.

Putting the machine-shredded documents together requires analysis of the script on the surface of the fragments. The institute has already had success putting together similarly destroyed documents for Germany's tax authorities.

But then, it is never the technology that is at fault, but people and the uses they put it to...

No matter, I am very pleased to hear that there is some work somewhere being done on the past of former communist countries.

http://www.komotv.com/news/national/7423656.html

ITEMS TO BIBLIOGRAPHY

Solidarno?? 1980-81. Karnawa? z wyrokiem.

Solidarity 1980-81. A Carnival under sentence

Thanks to understanding between the strikers and the authorities - in the midst of „social realism" in Poland - the nation experienced a brief experience of freedom during the period from September 1980 to December 1981. „Carnival time" is a description of the euphoria of that period, seen from the perspective of martial law. In comparison to the realities of life after 13th December 1981, that period seems like a holiday of freedom, a time to voice out loud all manner of truths. However, can one really use the word „Carnival" to describe a time when every moment of joy, every ray of hope turned out to be just an illusion...?

More about KARTA publications: http://www.karta.org.pl/ksiegarnia_produkty.asp?DzialID=5

The INTERNATIONAL SAMIZDAT [RESEARCH] ASSOCIATION (IS[R]A) NEWSLETTER

calls on all IS[R]A members and other researchers and specialists working on topics related to samizdat and alternative culture, dissent, opposition and protest movements in the XX century to submit items for our next issue. We welcome announcements on archival and museum acquisitions, news regarding the processing of collections, calls for papers, project updates, and announcements on new publications and exhibitions.

We also invite articles on the themes above. Please email your submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Zaslavskaya Olga

IS[R]A Newsletter Editor