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James H. Billington Lecture | Reading and Learning from Political Prisoners Today: Beyond the Dissidents

Date & Time

Thursday
Dec. 12, 2024
1:00pm – 2:00pm ET

Location

6th Floor Flom Auditorium, Woodrow Wilson Center

Overview

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As political imprisonment has once again become a mass experience in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, questions around how to narrate the memory of repressions, and which inherited plots to use in the process, are again becoming urgent. In this presentation, Billington Fellow Anastasiya Osipova will discuss why a pre-Gulag tradition of writing about political imprisonment may be becoming increasingly relevant now in the context of the intensifying repressions. She will focus on the legacy of the publishing activity of the Society of Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers (1921-1935) and the lessons that it carries for Eastern European political prisoners today.

A light reception will follow the event.

The James H. Billington Fellowship was established in 2016 in tribute to the co-founder of the Kennan Institute, former Director of the Wilson Center, and former Librarian of Congress. Dr. Billington made enduring contributions to the field of Russian Studies, and in our nation’s ability to understand and maintain bridges of dialogue with the Russian people.


Hosted By

Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on 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 South Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more