How We Remember. The Memory of Communism – Its Forms, Manifestations, Meanings
Venue: Goethe-Institut Prag (Masarykovo nábřeží 32, Praha 1)
Organiser: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny Akademie věd ČR
Partners: European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau, Goethe-Institut Tschechien, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Prag, Strategie AV21
Media partner: Český rozhlas Plus
The thirtieth anniversary of the events that took place in 1989 is an appropriate opportunity not only for research of and discussions about the developments which resulted in the fall of the Central and Eastern European Communist regimes in the end of the 1980s, but also for focusing attention on how the memory of Communism has been developing and transforming in the last three decades and how reflections of the Communist past have been influencing the development since 1989.
The objective of the “How We Remember” international conference is to examine and discuss forms, manifestations, and meanings of the memory of Communist regimes in various shapes and environments from a broad transnational perspective. The conference will be attended by many leading experts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Russian Federation, and Estonia.
The conference will focus, in particular, on:
⦁ reflections of Communism in the public, political, and professional discourse
⦁ forms of treatment of the Communist past in the public space
⦁ connections between reflections of Communism and the development of new democratic social identities
⦁ memory of Communism in art, literature, and cinematography
⦁ transformations of the individual memory of Communism.
The conference will be held in English and Czech/Slovak and simultaneously translated into Czech and English.
Preliminary programme
September 17
9.00
Introductory speeches
Key note
Miloš ŘEZNÍK ⦁ Národní paměť a transnacionalita míst paměti: 1989 ve střední Evropě /National Memory and Transnationality of the Places of Memory: 1989 in Central Europe
9.45–11.15
Session 1
Jan RUBEŠ ⦁ Úvahy o selektivní paměti /Reflections on Selective Memory
Vera DUBINA ⦁ Contemporary “Memory-Building” in Russia: State History Policy and Local Initiatives
Piotr KWIATKOWSKI ⦁ Communism in Polish Collective Memory after 1989
Valeriya KORABLYOVA ⦁ The Communist Past in the Political Present of Ukraine
11.45–13.15
Session 2
Muriel BLAIVE ⦁ The Black Book of Communism
Florin ABRAHAM ⦁ Historiography and Remembrance Policies in Romania: The Role of Anti-Communist Ideology (1989–2019)
Attila PÓK ⦁ Hungarian Historiography
Jekaterina PAVLENKO ⦁ Practices of Working with Soviet Past in Russia in the Last 30 Years: International Memorial Experience
14.00–14.30
Project presentations
Lena ENS
Barbora LATEČKOVÁ
14.30–16.00
Session 3
Claudia-Florentina DOBRE ⦁ 30 Years after the Fall: Communism in the Romanian Post-Communist Cinema
András NAGY ⦁ The Communist Past in Hungarian post-1989 Literature
Hannes KRAUSS ⦁ The GDR in post-1990 German Literature
Alexander KRATOCHVIL ⦁ Literární diagnóza středoevropské „historické nemoci“ /The Literary Diagnosis of the Central European “Historical Disease”
16.30–18.00
Session 4
Helena ULBRECHTOVÁ ⦁ Otcové ve službách nacismu a stalinismu z perspektivy jejich synů /Fathers in the Service of Nazism and Communism from the Perspective of Their Sons
Réka SÁRKÖZY ⦁ The Communist Past in Hungarian Documentary Movie
Kamila ZYTO ⦁ The Memory of Communism in Polish Cinematography
Claus LÖSER ⦁ Mirror & Projection. The Peaceful Revolution in East Germany and Its Cinematographic Echoes during the 1990’s
September 18
9.00–10.45
Session 5
Sabine STACH ⦁ How Tourists Remember: The Communist Past and International Tourism Industry
Albert BING ⦁ Croatia: …ism’s and Confusing Memories: Controversies of the Communist Past in the Present
Marie ČERNÁ ⦁ Podivná okupace. Vzpomínání na Sovětskou armádu v Československu 1968–1991 /A Strange Occupation: Remembering the Soviet Army in Czechoslovakia, 1968–91
Sándor HORVÁTH ⦁ Anti-Communist Cultural Activities in post-1989 Remembrance
Adéla GJURIČOVÁ ⦁ Od digitální utopie k remixu: Paměť komunismu v digitální éře /From Digital Utopia to Remix: The Communist Past in the Digital Era
11.15–13.00
Session 6
Jürgen DANYEL ⦁ Communist Monuments after 1990: German Debates and Experiences
Vera KATZ ⦁ The Treatment of Communist monuments in Sarajevo during last 30 years
Jaroslav CUHRA ⦁ Pamětní místa v českém veřejném prostoru /Memorial Sites in Czech Public Space
Mile BJELAJAC ⦁ Serbia: contested memory
Tomasz KOZŁOWSKI ⦁ The Forms of Treatment of the Communist Past in the Public Space in Poland after 1989
14.00–15.30
Session 7
Jurij HADALIN ⦁ 30 Years after the Fall of Communism in Slovenia: Controversies over the Interpretation of Memories during the Transition Period
Sandra VOKK ⦁ Development of the International Museum for the Victims of Communism in the Former Patarei Prison
Peter JAŠEK ⦁ Pamäťová politika na Slovensku a Nežná revolúcia /Memory Policy in Slovakia and the Velvet Revolution
Toomas HIIO ⦁ Coming to Terms with the Consequences of the Soviet Occupation in Estonia: 30 Years of Memory Policy and Commemoration
16.00–17.30
Session 8
Petra CHOVANCOVÁ ⦁ Spomínanie na obdobie komunizmu v lokálnej pamäti /Remembering the Communist Era in Local Memory
Klára KOHOUT ⦁ Vliv politiky paměti na vznik a uchovávání romské minulosti /The Influence of Memory Policy on the Origin and Preservation of the Roma Past
Miroslav VANĚK ⦁ Proměny paměti studentských aktivistů z roku 1989 /Changes in the Memory of Student Activists from 1989
František NEUPAUER ⦁ Pamäť politických väzňov /The Memory of Political Prisoners
17.30–17.45
Concluding remarks
Oldřich TŮMA