If you are holding an event related to Russia or her neighbours which you would like us to list on this page please email brief details and an image to info@scotlandrussiaforum.org. The SRF reserves the right to accept, reject or edit material sent in.
Thursday 4 October
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Moral Exemplarity in Post-Soviet Russia: The Cult of the New Martyr Evgenii Rodionov
5.15pm, Princess Dashkova Russian Centre, 19 Buccleuch Place
A talk by Victoria Fomina (Central European University, Budapest) about the cult of new martyr Evgenii Rodionov, a soldier who was killed in Chechnya, exploring how he has become a public symbol of patriotism and private moral exemplar. All welcome. Details on www.ed.ac.uk. |
This talk explores the developing cult of the Russian soldier Evgenii Rodionov, killed in 1996 in Chechen captivity, allegedly for his refusal to take off his cross and convert to Islam. Widely embraced as a symbol of spiritual strength, Rodionov is both hailed as a Russian national hero and venerated as a Christian martyr by some Orthodox believers. Despite the Russian Orthodox Church’s refusal to canonize the soldier in 2004, many Orthodox believers make pilgrimages to his grave, paint icons of him, and pray to him. I argue that the appeal of the soldier’s figure reflects a trend of longing for spirituality in post-Soviet Russia, which developed in response to the perceived moral collapse following the democratic transition. I trace the historical evolution of Rodionov’s representations. Through investigating how Rodionov’s image is employed as a public symbol of patriotism and private moral exemplar for militaristically-oriented young men, I seek to contribute to an understanding of the entangled relationship between religion, nationalism, and conservative morality in contemporary Russia.
Victoria Fomina is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Budapest. Through comparative exploration of modern martyr cults in Russia and Cyprus, she studies the relationship between nationalism, religion, and militarism and sheds light on the broader phenomenon of the rise of moral conservatism in contemporary societies.
Victoria Fomina is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Budapest. Through comparative exploration of modern martyr cults in Russia and Cyprus, she studies the relationship between nationalism, religion, and militarism and sheds light on the broader phenomenon of the rise of moral conservatism in contemporary societies.
Friday 12 October
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Witchcraft and Society in Early Modern Russia
A talk by Professor Val Kivelson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan, for the Aberdeen University Symposium "The Enchanted World: Magic and Community in Scotland & Eastern Europe 1500–1750"
1-5.15pm, Meeting Room 1, Seventh Floor, Sir Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen All welcome. More information: Professor Robert I. Frost robert.frost@abdn.ac.uk |
Aberdeen Centre for Russian & East European Studies, Centre for Early Modern Studies
Symposium
The Enchanted World: Magic and Community in Scotland & Eastern Europe 1500–1750
1:00–2:15: Julian Goodare (Edinburgh) "Witchcraft and Community in Early Modern Scotland"
2:30–3:45: Michael Müller (Halle) "The Lord's Power and the Salvation of Our Souls: Theology and Magic in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk"
4:00–5:15: Val Kivelson (Michigan) "Witchcraft and Society in Early Modern Russia: Why Witchcraft and Magical Spells Provide all the Answers to Early Modern Russian History"
Speakers
Dr Julian Goodare is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh, and one of Scotland’s leading historians of witchcraft and magic. He has published extensively on early modern Scottish politics and society, and is the author of The Scottish Witch Hunt in Context (2002), and The European Witch Hunt (2016).
Professor Michael Müller is Professor of East European History at the University of Halle. He is Germany’s leading historian of early modern Poland-Lithuania. He has written on the Partitions of Poland-Lithuania, and on the Reformation in the Prussian lands of the Polish Crown. His many publications include: Zweite Reformation und städtische Autonomie im Königlichen Preußen. Danzig, Elbing und Thorn in der Epoche der Konfessionalisierung (1992), and Polen zwischen Preußen und Rußland. Souveränitätskrise und Reformpolitik, 1736-1752 (1983).
Professor Val Kivelson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Her research has helped to transform our picture of early modern Muscovy by challenging many assumptions concerning the relationship between society and the state. She is the author of several books on early modern Russia, including: Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2013). Her Cartographies of Tsardom: the Land and its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2006) was awarded the 2007 Roland Bainton History & Theology Prize by the Sixteenth Century Society
Symposium
The Enchanted World: Magic and Community in Scotland & Eastern Europe 1500–1750
1:00–2:15: Julian Goodare (Edinburgh) "Witchcraft and Community in Early Modern Scotland"
2:30–3:45: Michael Müller (Halle) "The Lord's Power and the Salvation of Our Souls: Theology and Magic in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk"
4:00–5:15: Val Kivelson (Michigan) "Witchcraft and Society in Early Modern Russia: Why Witchcraft and Magical Spells Provide all the Answers to Early Modern Russian History"
Speakers
Dr Julian Goodare is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh, and one of Scotland’s leading historians of witchcraft and magic. He has published extensively on early modern Scottish politics and society, and is the author of The Scottish Witch Hunt in Context (2002), and The European Witch Hunt (2016).
Professor Michael Müller is Professor of East European History at the University of Halle. He is Germany’s leading historian of early modern Poland-Lithuania. He has written on the Partitions of Poland-Lithuania, and on the Reformation in the Prussian lands of the Polish Crown. His many publications include: Zweite Reformation und städtische Autonomie im Königlichen Preußen. Danzig, Elbing und Thorn in der Epoche der Konfessionalisierung (1992), and Polen zwischen Preußen und Rußland. Souveränitätskrise und Reformpolitik, 1736-1752 (1983).
Professor Val Kivelson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Her research has helped to transform our picture of early modern Muscovy by challenging many assumptions concerning the relationship between society and the state. She is the author of several books on early modern Russia, including: Desperate Magic: The Moral Economy of Witchcraft in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2013). Her Cartographies of Tsardom: the Land and its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia (2006) was awarded the 2007 Roland Bainton History & Theology Prize by the Sixteenth Century Society
Tuesday 13 November
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Moneyland and Rich Russians
A conversation between Oliver Bullough and Elisabeth Schimpfössl.
University of Edinburgh Business School, 29 Buccleuch Pl, Edinburgh EH8 9JS 6pm: coffee and registration 6.30pm: start of event 8pm: end of event with networking drinks to around 8.30pm All welcome. No charge but booking essential. Booking link here. If SRF members would like to join the speakers for dinner after the event (at your own expense) please contact Jenny Carr, info@scotlandrussiaforum.org. This is a joint SRF - University of Edinburgh Business School event. We are grateful to Blackwells Edinburgh who will supply books for sale and signing after the event. |
A conversation between authors of two recent books on Russia's wealthy. Where does the money come from, what do they do with it, and why does it affect all of us?
Join the investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into Moneyland (Profile Books 2018) - the secret country of the lawless, stateless super rich.
Learn how the institutions of Europe and the United States have become money-laundering operations, undermining the foundations of Western stability. Discover the true cost of being open for business no matter how corrupt and dangerous the customer. Meet the kleptocrats. Meet their awful children. And find out how heroic activists around the world are fighting back. The story of wealth and power in the 21st century. It isn't too late to change it.
Elisabeth Schimpfössl's Rich Russians (OUP 2017) is based on 80 interviews she conducted with millionaires, billionaires, their spouses and children in an attempt to see "how they tick", concluding that their social, cultural and political influence is likely to outlast any regime change.
There will be a book signing after the event.
Join the investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into Moneyland (Profile Books 2018) - the secret country of the lawless, stateless super rich.
Learn how the institutions of Europe and the United States have become money-laundering operations, undermining the foundations of Western stability. Discover the true cost of being open for business no matter how corrupt and dangerous the customer. Meet the kleptocrats. Meet their awful children. And find out how heroic activists around the world are fighting back. The story of wealth and power in the 21st century. It isn't too late to change it.
Elisabeth Schimpfössl's Rich Russians (OUP 2017) is based on 80 interviews she conducted with millionaires, billionaires, their spouses and children in an attempt to see "how they tick", concluding that their social, cultural and political influence is likely to outlast any regime change.
There will be a book signing after the event.
Wednesday 14 November
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Oliver Bullough - Moneyland
A talk by Oliver Bullough on his new book "Moneyland", publ. Profile Books 2018. Details.
16:00-17:30: Boyd Orr building (Room 611), University of Glasgow, Ashton Lane, Glasgow G12 8QR. All welcome. More information: Huseyn Aliyev, University of Glasgow Central and East European Studies, Huseyn.Aliyev@glasgow.ac.uk |