OSA Archivum,
Arany János utca 32,
1051, Budapest

The twentieth anniversary of the 1989 regime change has inspired debate about Communist legacies and the impact of the Cold War on transition in Eastern Europe. Much of this debate has focused on either the agents that contributed to its demise or an analysis of the transition as a struggle for European (re)integration. In both cases the destinies of former Communist countries are subjected to linear narratives that converge towards a vision of teleological (self-)liberation. But paradoxically this keen interest in the past met with a great deal of local epistemological reticence when it came down to the question of applied research and recent history. This can be correlated to a paucity of meta-reflections on Cold War Studies paradigms and a difficulty of gaining access to archival records of Cold War propaganda. A case in point is that of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which continues to stir up sentiment but remains underexplored due to enduring trauma and the inability to access source material.

By bringing together the history of ideas, symbolic interactionism, social history and media anthropology, the conference seeks to create an interdisciplinary framework for the study of a period characterized by complex intellectual mobility, the intricate interplay of fantasies about the “other”, societal accommodation, generational change and conceptual imbrications between Eastern European traditions and Western cultural and political models.

The conference is organized by the International Alternative Culture Center in cooperation with OSA Archivum at CEU, CRC CEU, the CEU Departments of History and IRES and within the framework of the OSI-HESP ReSET “Alternative Culture Beyond Borders: the Past and Present of the Arts and Media in the Context of Globalization”

Organizers: Karl Hall, Irina Papkova, Ioana Macrea-Toma, and Olga Zaslavskaya

Biographies - Abstracts

PROGRAM - in pdf

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

9:00 - 9:30 - Introduction by Istvan Rev, OSA Archivum
9:30 - 11:00 - Panel I: Legacies of the Cold War

Moderator: Irina Papkova

Roxana Georgiana Radu (Romania), Some Histories Stay Secret for 20 Years: the Partial Disclosure of Secret Services Files in Central and Eastern Europe

Hanna Vasilevich (Belarus), The Impact of Communist Ideologies on Nationalism in CEE and its Outcomes for the Creation of Democratic Societies in the Region

Veronika Tuckerova (US), Why is Kafka missing in Prague? Franz Kafka and the Legacies of the Cold War

11:00 - 11:15 - Coffee Break
11:15 - 12:45 - Panel II: Cultural Interactions

Moderator: Karl Hall

Alexey Fominykh, (Russia), The American National Exhibition in Moscow of 1959: Visitor Comment Books

Anna Eremeeva (Russia), International Academic Exchange in the Conditions of the Cold War

Natalia Yakubova (Hungary), East-West and East-East Cultural Contacts via Channels of "Alternative Theatre" (1960-70s)

12:45 - 14:00 - Lunch
14:00 - 15:30 - Panel III: Ideologies and Representations

Moderator: Ioana Macrea-Toma

Paulina Bren (US), Politics and Punk: The Czech Underground on the Eve of the Revolution

Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski (Poland), International Solidarity with Solidarnosc, 1982-1983

Sergei Kruk (Latvia), Lenin Monuments in Soviet Latvia: Marketing Fine Arts through Ideology

Simona Dimitriu (Romania), Monuments and Memory in Post-socialist Romania: Lenin, Casa Poporului and the Revolution from Artists’ Perspectives

15:30 - 15:45 - Coffee Break
15:45 - 17:15 - Panel IV: Exiles and Cold War (anti)Propaganda

Moderator: Olga Zaslavskaya

Ioana Macrea-Toma (Romania), Cold War Radio: Connecting or Disrupting Exile Politics?

Camelia Craciun (Romania), Designing Networks of Trust: Monica Lovinescu at Radio Free Europe

Simo Mikkonen (Finland), Fatherland Calls. Return Migration as Part of the Soviet Cold War Strategy in the 1950s
Gabriel Andreescu (Romania), The Last Communist Decade: Letters to Radio Free Europe, and Their Practical and Theoretical Relevance

Thursday, 10 December 2009

9:00 - 10:30 - Panel V: Cacophony of Voices: Varieties of Dissent

Moderator: Jessie Labov

Vsevolod Sergeev (Russia), The Problems of Building a Dialogue between the Soviet and East European Left Dissidents

Tamás Kende (Hungary), Old and New Left in Eastern Europe around '68

Katarzyna Bielińska (Poland), The Praxis Group: Between Myth and Reality

10:30 - 10:45 - Coffee Break
10:45 - 13:00 - Panel VI: Hidden Movements and Realities

Moderator: Andras Mink

Catherine Samary (France), From 1989 back to 1968: Hidden Realities of Systemic Crises against Cold War’s Ideology

Ilya Budratskis (Russia), Reflections on 1968 among Soviet Left Dissidents

G. M. Tamás (Hungary), The End of Three Equilibria: East/West, Labour/Capital, Left/Right

13:00 - 14:30 - Lunch
14:30 - 16:30 - Panel VII: Cold War: Concepts, Legacies and Law

Moderator: Asim Jusic

Mišo Dokmanovic (Macedonia), The Law and Judiciary as an Instrument for Establishing Totalitarianism in Macedonia in the Early Cold War

Timothy William Waters (USA), Blinding Panopticon: Redaction of/and History in Yugoslav War Crimes Trials

Muriel Blaive (Austria), The Cold War as a Western Concept: From a Historical Victory to a Belated Victory in the Minds

Aviezer Tucker (USA), The Legacies of Totalitarianism

17:00 - Reception