Study Group on The Russian Revolution
Annual Conference, 3 to 5 January 2024
Hartley Suite, Building 38, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, UK
Conference theme: Decolonization in the history of the Russian Revolution
- Languages: English, Russian
- Format: in person and online
- Organizers: George Gilbert, Lara Douds
Wednesday 3 January
12:30 to1:30pm: Welcome, Lunch, and Registration
1:30 to 3:00pm Panel 1: From the Centre to Periphery and Back in the Soviet Twenties: A Threefold Approach
Chair: Geoffrey Swain
Rukya Mandrile, The smithy group and cultural decolonisation. Longing for nature, escaping the city
Virginia Pili, Opening the Pandora's Box: the national question in 1922-23
Monica Puglia, Competing for the desert: Peschanaya uchitel’nica by Andrei Platonov
3.00 to 3.30pm: Coffee, tea, and biscuits
3.30 to 4:00pm: Special event. Alistair Dickens, Mark Vincent, So long the specification? Teaching Stalinism beyond the textbook.
4.15 to 6.15 pm Panel 2: Comparative and International Approaches to the Russian Revolution
Chair: Daniel Orlovsky
Dmytro Bondarenko, Assassination as a Casus Belli or a Factor of Revolution and Counter-Revolution: The Cases of Sarajevo (28 June 1914) and Moscow (6 July 1918). A Comparative Analysis
Raquel Varela, Roberto della Santa, The Carnation Revolution and the Russian Revolution: Possible Comparisons?
Marie-Josée Lavallée, Preparing and Securing the Russian Revolution: Three Phases and Modalities of Bolshevik Involvement in the Revolutionary Movement in Austria, 1916-1919
Evgeny Sergeev, British Interpretations of the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ vs. ‘Communist Militarism’ in the 1920s. The cases of Iran and Afghanistan
End of day one
6.15pm: Pub drinks, followed at 7.30pm by dinner at Oxford Brasserie, 33-34 Oxford St, Southampton, SO14 3DS
Thursday 4 January
09:00 to11:00am Panel 3: Revolutionary Politics
Chair: Lara Green
Lars T. Lih, Odnorodnoe: On the Legitimacy of the October Revolution
Charters Wynn, Lenin’s War Cabinet
Alice K. Pate, The Working Intelligentsia and the Nationalities Question, 1905-1917
Lara Douds, ‘Всесоюзный староста’: Constructing ‘Kalinych’ and his Priemnaia in the Soviet public imagination in the 1920s
11:00 to 11:30am: Coffee, tea, and biscuits
11:30am to 1:00pm Panel 4: Soviet Culture
Chair: Monica Puglia
James Ryan, Marx’s White Shirt: Vladimir Zazubrin’s The Chip (1923) and the Boundaries of Early Soviet Literature
Olga Gradinaru, M. Sholokhov’s Russian Revolution in Subsequent Film Adaptations
Alexander Statiev, Soviet Adventure Tourism as an Aspect of the Cultural Revolution
1:00 to 2:00pm: Lunch (Hartley Suite)
2:00 to 3:00pm: SGRR AGM.
3:00 to 3:30pm: Coffee, tea, and biscuits
3:30 to 5:30pm Panel 5: New Approaches to Ukraine and the Caucasus
Chair: Charters Wynn
Mateusz Majman, Local Responses to the Russian Revolution in the North Caucasus: A Case Study of the Mountain Jewish Community in Dagestan
Roman Osharov, The Caucasus and Central Asia under Russian rule – transfer of people and knowledge on Russia’s imperial borderlands, 1870-1890
Konstantin Tarasov, ‘If Shevchenko were alive, he would probably be "with us..."’ Political struggle for appropriation of the Taras Shevchenko’s image, 1911-1921
Serhiy Blavatskyy, Dmytro Dontsov and the Bureau of Nationalities of Russia (Bern, 1916–1917): A perspective into decolonization in the Russian Empire
5:30 to 6:30pm Roundtable: Russian Historical Research and the War in Ukraine
Chair: George Gilbert
Speakers: Alice K. Pate, Michał P. Sadłowski, Wim Coudenys
End of day 2
7:00pm: Dinner at Ennio’s, Town Quay, Southampton SO14 2AR
Friday 5 January
09:30 to 11:00am Panel 6: Gender and the Study of the Revolution
Chair: Sofya Anisimova
Olga Shnyrova, Global Gender Policy of the Third International on the Service of the World Revolution: Regional Peculiarities and Hierarchies
Natalya Gafizova, The imperial underside of the women's movement in Russia at the end of the 19th – beginning of 20th century: on the example of the analysis of the integration of women's organizations of the Russian Empire into International Women's Council
Sophia Manukova, The Russian Revolution of 1917, the MI5 Agents and Their Russian Female Associates
11:00 to11:30am: Coffee, tea, and biscuits
11:30 to1:00pm Roundtable: The Centenary of Lenin’s Death
Chair: Geoffrey Hosking
Speakers: Dan Orlovsky, Lara Douds, James Ryan, Chris Read, Lars T. Lih.
1:00 to 2:00pm: Lunch (Hartley Suite)
2:00 to 4:00pm Panel 7: Under-Researched Aspects of Russia’s First World War
Chair: Marie-Josée Lavallée
Sam Foster, The Macedonian Front and the End of Imperial Russia, 1915 – 1919: Forgotten Campaign or an Early Flashpoint?
Wim Coudenys, A dubious go-between? V.P. Shelgunov and the fate of ‘displaced’ Russians and Belgians after WWI
Jamie Bryson, The Expansion of the Enemy: The Okhrana in 1915
Sofya Anisimova, Units of ‘Maimed Soldiers’ in Revolutionary Russia, 1917-1918
End of conference
With thanks to our sponsors: BASEES, and the School of History, University of Southampton.
In association with CEEES (Centre for East European and Eurasian Studies, University of Southampton)