The National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia will host a conference examining Russia’s role in the First World War on the 3rd-5th June 2014.
The conference is being organised by the International Center for the History and Sociology of World War II and its Consequences, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow); the German Historical Institute (Moscow); and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC); “with additional support from a number of other institutions”.
The Russian experience of war
The conference will mark the Centenary of the First World War in 2014 and assess Russia’s unique experience of the conflict.
“The Russian Empire shared the experiences of other European nations in a war that profoundly affected its economy, social relations, politics and culture. At the same time, in Russia the consequences of war were markedly different”.
“The war launched a series of cataclysmic events, including the collapse of the old regime, the upheaval of February 1917, the Bolsheviks’ rise to power and the bloodshed of the Civil War. For many decades, Russia’s experience in the First World War was overshadowed by the “revolutionary myth” that lent legitimacy to the Soviet state”.
“Only recently, scholars started to analyze this war on its own account as a crucial event in Russian history, not just as a prelude to the revolution. Russia’s war experience is now studied in its contemporary European context, but also as a political testing ground”.
“Ideologies and practices that emerged in the conditions of the First World War later persisted through the interwar period and found their deadly application during the Second World War”.
The conference will bring together scholars of Russian history, with the aim of sharing recent research, exploring modern understanding about Russia during the First World War and to “stimulate further research”.
The conference will consider Russia in the period within the wider European and global context.
Call for papers
A call for papers has been made to accompany the conference, with candidates being “invited to engage” with one of the following themes:
Economic and financial aspects of the war;
Social and gender dynamics;
Ethnic cleansings in the rear and on the occupied territories as well as wartime violence against civilians in Russia and other countries (including the Armenian Genocide);
History of nationalisms, national movements and the Jewish question;
Russia’s occupation policy in Galicia and German occupation of Russian imperial territories;
POW and concentration camps;
History of wartime diplomacy;
The role of ideas and ideologies during the war;
The conference also aims to discuss the memory of the First World War “as represented in diaries, memoirs, fiction, art and film”
Papers that discuss the influence of practices and ideologies of the First World War on the interwar period as well as on the Second World War are “particularly welcome”.
Topics outside those suggested above may also be considered.
Paper submission
The conference aims to be multidisciplinary and therefore scholars of Russian history as well as those working in related fields are invited to submit papers, (including advanced graduate students).
Those interested in submitting papers should be engaged in current, original, unpublished research on their topic.
The working languages of the conference will be English and Russian.
Papers must be submitted by the 15th September 2013, with successful applicants notified by 15th October 2013.
The conference will take place from the 3rd-5th June 2013 at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia.
To find out more about the conference, visit the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia’s website here.