Dear Colleagues,

the Historical Institute of the University of Wrocław is preparing the second edition of the conference focused on the history of Eastern Europe in the 20th century. Its first edition took place in November 2021. The results of this meeting are presented in a volume of studies published last year entitled From Revolution to Perestroika. Transformations of Eastern Europe in the Last Century.

This year’s conference will have two main themes. The first will be to summarize the state of knowledge, but also to present the latest varied research on the transformations taking place in Eastern Europe in the 20th century, also taking into account the non-European (post)Soviet area. In the center of attention we put nationality problems, the politics of repression, the construction and dismantling of the Soviet system, the social transformations of “communist modernization” and the effects of the collapse of the USSR.

The second central issue will be the collective and individual memory of the twentieth century, the conditions for its formation, the impact of political pressure, the politics of memory (or, alternatively, the politics of history) in the various countries of the region, the relationship between the authorities, official history, history as a scientific discipline and the memory of witnesses and the historical consciousness of the peoples of Eastern Europe, reflection on the possibilities and importance of the dialogue of the cultures of memory.

As two years ago, we want the scientific legacy of Prof. Stanislaw Ciesielski (1954-2020), founder and long-time head of the Department of History of Eastern Europe at the Historical Institute, an outstanding researcher of the Stalinist era and nationality issues, to remain an inspiration for the topics of the presentations.

The conference will be held at the University of Wrocław on November 23–24, 2023. Upon request of the speakers, remote participation will be possible. Approximately 20-minute papers are planned. Each session will be followed by 20-minute discussions. Languages of the conference are: Polish, Ukrainian, English and Russian (we do not provide simultaneous translation).

The conference fee is EUR 50 payable by September 1, 2023 (for those participating remotely – EUR 25; speakers from Ukraine and Belarus are free of charge, they can also apply for financing of their stay). We provide meals during the conference, conference materials and publication in a volume of studies based on conference papers (planned to be published on 2024).

We are waiting for submissions of proposals along with a short abstract (1000 characters with spaces) until April 15, 2023 (email: magdalena.gibiec@uwr.edu.pl). In case of a large number of proposals, we reserve the right to select the participants.

Conference participants will be asked to submit abstracts of the main theses of the papers of up to 4000 characters (with spaces) and biographies by September 30. They will be translated and available during the conference.

Conference Organizing Committee
Dr. Magdalena Gibiec
Prof. Grzegorz Hryciuk
Prof. Małgorzata Ruchniewicz (scientific director of the conference)
Dr. Aleksander Srebrakowski