Join George Washington University's Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies for a book talk on "Memory Politics and the Russian Civil War: Reds Versus Whites" by Margarita Karnysheva and Marlene Laruelle. 

In examining the re-emergence of Russia's White Movement, "Memory Politics and the Russian Civil War" gets to the heart of the rich 20th-century memory debates going on in Putin's Russia today. The Kremlin has been giving preference to a Soviet-lite nostalgia that denounces the 1917 Bolshevik revolution but celebrates the birth of a powerful Soviet Union able to bring the country to the forefront of the international scene after the victory in World War II. Yet in parallel, another historical narrative has gradually consolidated on the Russian public scene, one that favors the opposite camp, namely the White movement and the pro-tsarist groups defeated in the early 1920s. This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of this 'White Revenge', looking at the different actors who promote a White and pro-Romanov rehabilitation agenda in the political, ideological and cultural arenas and what this historical agenda might mean for Russia, both today and tomorrow.

RSVP can be found at this link.

Speakers:

Marlene Laruelle, director, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, research professor of International Affairs, George Washington University

Margarita Karnysheva, independent researcher

Eric Lohr (discussant), chair, history department, American University

Nina Tumarkin (discussant), Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Slavic Studies, professor of history, and director of the Russian Area Studies Program, Wellesley College

Alexander Verkhovsky (discussant), founder and Director, SOVA Center for Information and Analysis

Boris Kolonitsky (discussant), professor of history, European University in St. Petersburg, Russia

Peter Rollberg (chair), associate dean for faculty affairs and research initiatives, professor of Slavic languages, film studies and international affairs, George Washington University