Stalinism Revisited: The Establishment of Communist Regimes in East-Central Europe and the Dynamics of the Soviet Bloc

Conference Program:

Thursday 29 November, Romanian Embassy, Washington DC

9.00 am - 9.30 am
Welcome Address:
-Daniela Gitman, Chargé d'Affairs, Embassy of Romania to United States
-Horia-Roman Patapievici, President of the Romanian Cultural Institute

9.30 am – 10.00 am
Keynote lecture:
-Ambassador Thomas Simons Jr., Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University: "Eastern Europe between the USSR and the West: Reflections on the Origins and Dynamics of the Cold War"

10.20 am - 10.30 am: Coffee Break

10.45 am – 1.00 pm
1st Panel - Stalinism revisited:
-Agnes Heller, Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy and Political Science, New School University: "Legitimation Problems and Crises of Stalinism in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe
-Alfred J. Rieber, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania and University Research Professor at the Central European University: Popular Democracy. An Illusion?"
-Virgil Târau, Associate Professor, Babes-Bolyai University & The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives in Romania: The 1946 Elections and the Consolidation of Communist Power in Romania"
-Janos Rainer, Director of the Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution & Budapest University of Theatre and Film Arts: Revisiting Hungarian Stalinism"
-Discussant: Charles Gati, Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, School of Advanced International Studies/Johns Hopkins University

1.00 pm – 2.15 pm: Lunch

2.30 pm – 4.45 pm
2nd Panel – The Cominform and the Sovietization of East-Central Europe:
-Ivo Banac, Bradford Durfee Professor of History, Yale University: "The Cominform, the Yugoslav Defiance, and the Process of Sovietization"
-Mark Kramer, Director of the Cold War Studies Program at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies: "Stalin, Soviet Policy, and the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe, 1945-1953"
-Claudiu Secasiu, The National Council for the Study of the Secret Police Archives in Romania: "The Destruction of the Anticommunist Democratic Opposition the Trials of 1947"
-Dorin Dobrincu, Senior Research Fellow at "A.D. Xenopol" Institute for Historical Studies of the Romanian Academy & General Director of the Romanian National Archives: "The Anticommunist Armed Resistance in Romania in Comparative Perspective"
-Discussant: Vladimir Tismaneanu, Professor of Politics & Director of the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, Government and Politics University of Maryland -College Park & Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

7.00 pm – Official Reception with the Occasion of the Anniversary of Romania's National Day

Friday 30 November, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

9.00 am – 9.40 am
Welcome Address
-Lee Hamilton, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Keynote Lecture:
-Kenneth Jowitt, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley: "Revolutionary Breakthroughs and the Fate of Leninism in East Central Europe"

10.00 am – 10.15 am: Coffee Break

3rd Panel - Communist takeovers in East-Central Europe:

First Session:
10.30 am – 12.45 pm:
-John Connelly, Associate Professor, University of California Berkeley: "East German Stalinism in Comparative Perspective"
-Bartlomiej & Antoni Kaminski, University of Maryland, College Park & Institute of Social Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences: "Road to "People's Poland:" Stalin's Conquest Revisited"
-Ekaterina Nikova, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Balkan Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: "Revisiting Bulgarian Stalinism"
-Dragos Petrescu, Associate Professor, Political Science Department, University of Bucharest & The National Council for the Study of the Secret Police Archives in Romania: "Nationalism and Identity-Politics in Gheorghiu-Dej's Romania, 1948-1965"
-Discussant: Christian Ostermann, Director of Cold War International History Project

12.30 pm - 2.15 pm: Lunch break

2.30 pm – 4.30 pm:

3rd Panel: Communist Takeovers in East-Central Europe:

Second Session:
-Bradley Abrams, Associate Director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University & President of the Czechoslovak Studies Association: "Hope Died Last: The Czechoslovak Road to Stalinism"
-Svetozar Stojanovic, Founder and President of the Serbian-American Center & Distinguished Research Fellow, Center for International Inquiry, Buffalo, NY: "Varieties of Stalinism in Light of the Yugoslav Case"
-Cristian Vasile, Coordinator of the Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania & Researcher at the "Nicolae Iorga" History Institute of the Romanian Academy: "Propaganda and Culture in Romania at the Beginning of the Communist Regime"
-Bogdan Iacob, PhD Candidate, Central European University: "Fighting for the Intellectual Sphere: Control, Manipulation and Cooption in the Restructuring of the Romanian Academy of Sciences"
-Discussant: Charles King, Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies and Professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University:

4.45 pm – 5.30 pm
Concluding Remarks:
-Vladimir Tismaneanu, Professor of Politics & Director, Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, Government and Politics University of Maryland -College Park & Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania: "Diabolical Pedagogy and the Logic of Stalinism in East-Central Europe"

5.45 pm
Reception