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Kennan Institute Commemorates 10th Anniversary of the Assassination of Galina Starovoitova

The Kennan Institute is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the murder of Russian politician and former Wilson Center scholar, Galina Starovoitova, in a series of events in Washington, D.C. and St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia.

On Monday, November 10, 2008, the Kennan Institute hosted and webcast the lecture "In Honor of Galina Starovoitova: Ten Years After," featuring Harley Balzer and Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer. In this lecture, the Balzers reflected on the contributions of Starovoitova as a leading scholar on nationalities, an aide to Russia's first President Boris Yeltsin and later as a Deputy in the Russian Duma. This event will soon be available for viewing on the Kennan Institute website at www.wilsoncenter.org/kennan, under "Events."

On Tuesday, November 25, 2008, the seminar "Human Rights in Russia: Reviewing the Past Decade" will take place at the St. Petersburg branch of the Higher School of Economics. This seminar, which will be held as part of the Fifth Starovoitova Readings, is cosponsored by the Russian Association of Political Science (RAPS), Moscow; the RAPS Research Committee on Human Rights, St. Petersburg; and the St. Petersburg Branch of the Higher School of Economics. It will feature presentations by leading Russian scholars, including Russian alumni of the Kennan Institute. For further information on this event, the contact number in St. Petersburg is +7-812-714-00-47.

Finally, on Friday, November 28, 2008, the Kennan Moscow Project will hold the final event in the Fifth Starovoitova Readings in the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. The title of the conference is "Ethnic and Federative Relations in the Post-Soviet World: 10 Years without Galina Starovoitova." It will feature Russian alumni of the Kennan Institute and speakers from Kyiv, Moscow, Tallinn, and Kazan. For further information on this event, the contact number in Moscow is +7-495-232-3496.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of State established the Galina Starovoitova Fellowship at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute. Former Starovoitova Fellows Maria Belosova and Dmitrii Dubrovsky are featured speakers in the St. Petersburg seminar on November 25. Former Starovoitova Fellows Victor Shnirel'man and Emil Pain are featured speakers in the Moscow conference on November 28.

The Kennan Institute was founded as a division of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in December 1974. The Institute's mission is to improve American understanding of Russia and other successor states to the Soviet Union. For more than 30 years, the Institute has supported the research of hundreds of American and Russian scholars, journalists, and policy experts studying the region. In furthering its mission, the Institute has also organized thousands of conferences and meetings and its publications, from meeting summaries to books, have reached students, educators, and policymakers throughout the world.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the living, national memorial to President Wilson. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue.

For more information on Kennan Institute programs, please contact us at 202-691-4100 or by email at kennan@wilsoncenter.org. Click here to download this press release in PDF form.

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Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more