Thomas Sturm: Rationality, irrationality, and the war in Ukraine
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88679338894
In light of the systemic similarities of two aggressive manifestation of civilizational alterity - the German one of the 1930s and the Russian of today, - it seems a very promising strategy for contemporary Russian intellectuals to study and take into account the experience of the position of German intellectuals who were in exile during the Nazi years. This German experience can be a lesson for, on the basis of which the Russian intellectuals can build their position in relation to current events and their strategy in trying to influence these events and address their compatriots who remained in Russia. And here the most important example is Thomas Mann's unprecedented political, enlightening, propagandistic and at the same time literary project "Listen, Germany" - 55 radio messages with which he addressed the Germans via BBC during all the years of the war.
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Previous seminars:
- 16 september — Watch on YouTube
- 30 september — Watch on YouTube
- 7 october — Watch on YouTube
- 14 october — Watch on YouTube
- 21 october — Watch on YouTube
- 28 october 17:00–19:00
Séminaire de l'Institut de Philosophie Indépendant Les outils philosophiques dans l’analyse des défis contemporains au Centre d’histoire des philosophies modernes de la Sorbonne ( HIPHIMO )
Séminaire organisé par Dr. Prof. Yulia Sineokaya
Philosophical instruments in the analysis of contemporary challenges
Since the Enlightenment, with its famous debate on philosophia popularis, philosophy has been confronted several times with the question of its use for a broad audience and its ability to provide answers to contemporary challenges. Can this kind of ‘popular’ philosophy retain its systematic character, or should it methodologically reinvent itself to solve specific problems? From today’s perspective, this question looks more relevant than ever, given the complexity of problems presented by the political, economic and existential crises that threaten the stability of democratic structures and cause rapid social changes.
Our seminar aims, on one side, to apply philosophical instruments to the analysis of contemporary interdisciplinary problems in a broad field, from recent and ongoing social and political developments to scientific discoveries and cultural trends, and, on the other side, to study the phenomena of the modern world in the context of the history of philosophy. This goal is also an attempt to answer the growing criticism that contemporary philosophy is primarily interested in abstract problems detached from real-life issues. Many of our topics are associated with Russia, as the events since February 2022 have significantly influenced the international political and intellectual landscape.
2024
29 January, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Igor Ebanoidze (University of Bochum)
An unlearned lesson: Thomas Mann's radio addresses "German listeners!" in the light of today's experience
12 February, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Daniela Steila (University of Turin)
The image of Russia as an exception in European history and culture: from embracing a destiny to claiming a mission.
25 March, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Nikolaj Plotnikov (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Les conflits de justice. Sur l’histoire conceptuelle de la „justice“ à l’exemple de l’histoire intellectuelle russe.
22 April, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Sergei Medvedev (Charles University, Prague)
From biopolitics of care to necropolitics of war: Uses of Biopower in Putin’s Russia
27 May, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Vladimir Gel’man (University of Helsinki; Yerevan Center for International Education)
The Politics of Bad Governance: Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective
17 June, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Randall A. Poole (College of St. Scholastica, co-director of the Northwestern University Research Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought, USA)
Nicolas Berdyaev and the Twentieth-Century History of Human Rights
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2023
25 September, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Dr. Alexey Zhavoronkov (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Russia’s ‘New conservatism’ as Pseudo-Conservatism
23 October, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Evert van der Zweerde (Radboud University)
Political Philosophy in Russia – Incurable Imperial Mindset?
20 November, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Antoine Arjakovsky (Collège des Bernardins)
Avec le retour de la guerre en Europe le nécessaire dépassement de l’amnésie occidentale et les voies possibles de jugement des crimes du communisme
Dr. Yurii Latysh (European Humanities University of Vilnius)
Ukraine's Memory Politics during the War
11 December, 18:00–20:00
Dr. Prof. Thomas Sturm (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Rationality, irrationality, and the war in Ukraine
Seminar by Antoine Arjakovsky: With the return of war in Europe the necessary overcoming of Western amnesia and the possible ways of judging the crimes of communism and imperialism
We know that failure to judge the crimes of the communist past leads to their justification and then their repetition. Kholodomor, the cold genocide carried out by Russia against Ukraine in the winter of 2022-2023, a population of more than 40 million, is the tragic repetition of Kholodomor, the hunger genocide to which committed, on Stalin's orders, the Soviet Union to crush independent Ukraine, a crime against humanity which left more than 5 million dead.
Similarly, while at the beginning of the 21st century China was believed to respect international law, in 2013, President Xi Jinping called for "methodically carrying out external propaganda work" and "better telling China's story and making hear the voice of China.” Ten years later, on November 21, 2023, Lu Shaye, Chinese ambassador to France, denied on LCI the sovereignty of the countries resulting from the Soviet Union. The countries of the former USSR "do not have effective status in international law because there is no international agreement to concretize their status as sovereign countries", he declared in particular. The Chinese ambassador also questioned Crimea's belonging to Ukraine, a territory that Russia has occupied since 2014. "It depends on how we perceive this problem," he said. "There is History. Crimea was, at the very beginning, Russia's. It was Khrushchev who offered Crimea to Ukraine during the time of the Soviet Union." For the Chinese diplomat, we must stop “quibbling” over the question of post-Soviet borders.
To escape from amnesia on the one hand and propaganda on the other, it is necessary to rehabilitate authentic history, based in metaphysics, capable of showing the truth, of bringing out a therapeutic story, capable of deeply healing the wounded memories, resentments and desires for revenge. During this brief intervention, we propose firstly to bring to light the reality of the memorial conflict at the root of the current war between Russia and Ukraine. Then we will recall certain attempts to judge the crimes of communism, notably that of Vladimir Bukovsky, and we will briefly present the proposal of the Russian historian Nikolai Epplee for the democratization of the work of historical justice. Finally we will insist on the fact that, as Nicolas Berdyaev had already noticed who compared the 3rd communist international to the Third Imperial Rome, communist mythology is itself linked to imperialist mythology on a historical level but also on a metaphysical level. It is only by purifying imperial political theology that we will be able to free ourselves from the demons that haunt Russian consciousness and, beyond that, European consciousness.
Seminar by Evert van der Zweerde: Political Philosophy in Russia – Incurable Imperial Mindset?
Against the background of these questions, I will address three further notions that seem to set the stakes of the discussion: anarchy, authority, autocracy. This “triple A” suggests a specificity (rather than a uniqueness) of political-philosophical thought in Russia and in Russian (with the additional, far from obvious question: where to find it? partly in odd places…). The latter part of this sentence, however, raised new questions, that have become, arguably, more pressing than they ever were as a result of the current military conflict in Ukraine that some will describe as “Russia’s War” while others persist in calling it “Special Military Operation” - turning contemporary Russian society into a “special operation” in the process. Is a neutral, distanced approach possible in this case? While we always should seek nuance and perspective, we cannot, nor should we abstain from judging, nor can we avoid the question how to assess the current conflict, which can be described, alternatively but not mutually exclusively, as a clash between civilizations, as a geopolitical conflict between two of several large blocks -Schmittian Großräume [large spaces]- in a multipolar world, or as part of the yet-not-processed Russian as well as Soviet past – the total absence of Vergangenheitsbewältigung [coming to terms with the past], which not accidentally is a German word.
Presupposing, despite all differences, continuity rather than rupture when it comes to the Tsarist Russian Empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the present-day Russian Federation, we need to address the question if and how the current situation is nourished and / or legitimized by important strands and concepts in the tradition of political-philosophical thinking in Russia / Soviet Union. While, again, simplification must be avoided, we can identity, I will suggest, a specific dynamics of, on the one hand, an imperial and, by implication, Russo-Centric logic that comes in two variants, a belligerent and a benevolent (and paternalistic) one, and, on the other hand, an anti-colonial and, by implication, plural logic than emphasizes national identity and, politically, sovereignty and self-determination. This dynamics can then, finally, be tied back to the concepts of “empire” and “nation-state” as the two main alternative models of political modernity, both standing in opposition to alternatives that challenge the very notion of “statehood”. The specificity, albeit not uniqueness, of the Russian case would then be the historical fact of an expanding empire that incorporates, by whatever means, its blizhnеe zarubezh’e rather than establishing a colonial empire with overseas colonies.
One of the very few good things about the current military conflict in Ukraine is that it forces us to readdress, reassess and reinvestigate the anyway complicated reality of Russian political philosophy.
30 September [past event]
Organized by RASA and SEET
Moderator: Marina F. Bykova, North Carolina State University, USA
Management: Marina Bykova, Vitaliy Pronskikh, Yuliya Sineokaya, Sergey Chasovskikh
Liisa Bourgeot, University of Helsinki, Finland
Shpet and Berdyaev: Opposing Views on the Fate of Russian Philosophy.
Abstract: The phenomenologist Gustav Shpet was also supposed to emigrate on a philosophical ship, but he managed to stay in Russia. 1922 became a turning point in Shpet's personal career for another reason: it was then that his Sketch on the Development of Russian Philosophy was published. The lecture discusses Shpet's work and his highly critical attitude towards the history of Russian thought. Shpet claims that, on the whole, Russian philosophy was based on the idea of Russian national exceptionalism. In his opinion, such an approach effectively hindered the emergence of a "pure" and "rational" philosophy in Russia. Shpet holds a particular contempt for Nikolai Berdyaev, or "Beliberyaev," as Shpet calls him in his book.
Contrary to this, Berdyaev perhaps became the most famous of thinkers from Russian abroad. His popular Russian Idea, published in Paris in 1946, became a model for Western attitudes towards Russian thought: Russian philosophy - or even Russian culture as a whole - was considered an antipode to Western rationalism. In my presentation, I will compare the views of these two philosophers. How were they received by readers, and what role could they play in contemporary discussions?
Yulia Sineokaya, Sorbonne University & Independent Institute of Philosophy, France
Lev Shestov: overcoming existential anxiety
Abstract: The ongoing military aggression of Russia in Ukraine for the second year has intensified existential questions about faith and disbelief, duty and guilt, tragic meaningfulness and total absurdity of human existence, self-destruction, and violence. The texts of Lev Shestov (1866-1938) help counterpose careful philosophical analysis to the emotions of existential anxiety. Shestov's work is aimed at liberating people from the power of the "otherworldly" anonymous objective order, which condemns them to earthly, "otherworldly" suffering. The presentation will be devoted to the logic of the worldview search, which ultimately enables Lev Shestov to overcome existential anxiety by turning to mythical plots drawn from biblical texts, as well as the reception of his ideas in the works of his French interlocutors Boris Schlösse, Georges Bataille, and Benjamin Fondane. The worldview context within which Shestov's work will be considered is set by the creative works of authors such as Nietzsche, Unamuno, Camus, and Tillich.
Olga Lyanda-Geller, Purdue University, USA
The Multifaceted "Philosophical Steamboat": The Case of the Brutskus Brothers.
Abstract: Among the passengers of the "Philosophical Steamship" were not only philosophers, but also representatives of other disciplines. This report examines a relatively little-known case of the Brutskus brothers. Of the two brothers, the younger, Boris, was sent on the actual philosophical steamship. In the list of deportees prepared by the Cheka, Boris was listed as the fourth. The elder, Yuliy, was arrested and imprisoned in 1920. In 1922, he was deported by train to Lithuania.
Boris (Ber) Davidovich Brutskus (1874-1938) was an outstanding economist and agronomist whose views on the free market and planned economy contradicted Bolshevik ideology. After his exile, Ber Brutskus became a professor at the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin and later a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His book on economic planning in Soviet Russia was published in English translation in 1935, with a preface by future Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek.
Yuliy (Yudel, Julius) Davidovich Brutskus (1870-1951), a physician, journalist, historian, public figure, and deputy of the Constituent Assembly, was arrested primarily as one of the leaders of the Zionist movement. After his expulsion, he became a deputy of the Lithuanian Republic Seimas and Minister of Jewish Affairs. He was also one of the creators and leaders of the Society for Jewish Healthcare, of which Albert Einstein was the honorary chairman. Alexander Solzhenitsyn refers to Julius Bruckus's historical works on the history of the Khazars in his writings. While in Vichy France during World War II, Brutskus saved thousands of Jews from concentration camps by organizing the issuance of Lithuanian passports to them.
Such is the fate and contribution to the development of world civilization of just two passengers of the "philosophical steamboat".
Vladimir Marchenkov, Ohio University, USA
The Problem of Integrity in Russian Philosophy and the Integrative Trends in Global Thought of the 20th Century.
Abstract: My brief message is an overview and an attempt to position Russian philosophy of the idealistic direction among the efforts made by philosophers of different countries to develop integrating models of knowledge, culture, and history. Starting from Vl. Solovyov's teachings on holistic knowledge to contemporary international (if not to say global) Hegelianism, these attempts permeate the entire history of Russian and global thought in various fields. Alongside this continuity, the main theme in these tendencies has been and remains resistance to and the desire to overcome fragmenting, diffusive directions in philosophy, humanities, and social sciences. Not being an expert in the history of science, I will only briefly try to connect some scientific doctrines with these integration tendencies, among which theories of the noosphere, biosphere, and others occupy a particularly significant place and connect Russian thought with the global context.
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Dear colleagues and participants of the mini-conference!
We would like to draw your attention to the recently formed and registered Independent Institute of Philosophy (IIPh) in Paris. It is a professional association that brings together Russian-speaking researchers in the field of philosophy and other disciplines outside of Russia.
5 October, 19:00 CEST
Watch Live on YouTube:
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The war against Ukraine unleashed by Putin’s regime divided Russian society and triggered a “mobilisation” of history. The desire to understand the present by looking to the past and the attempt to explain the unknown through the analogy of the known is common, both for those who seek to justify this war and those who strongly condemn it. But do they equally understand their place in history and their responsibility to it? How much of the ‘historical’ can be found in our modernity and what is Russia’s place in it all? These proposed questions are to be discussed at the round table, which will bring together specialists in political thought and intellectual history.
Moderator – Andrey Oleinikov, Bielefeld University
Please note: the round table will be in Russian without translation.
Conference: Rethinking the Rule of Law
Collège des Bernardins, Paris
Entrance tickets:
Day rate: 10 euros
Half-day rate: 5 euros
What political theologies and general metaphysics are possible in a secularized world? The return of war in Europe has led to the need for rethinking the philosophical and theological foundations of democracy in Europe. Some states, such as Russia and Hungary, today reject any authority to the traditions of political liberalism. In Western Europe, postmodern thinking increasingly questions the proper functioning of the rule of law.
In collaboration with the Association of Christian Philosophers, the Independent Institute of Philosophy, and the Russian Democratic Club.
The conference will address the following questions:
- Can positive law be correlated with metaphysical notions of justice?
- Can republican principles be applied outside of any metaphysical system capable of justifying and connecting them together?
- Is it possible to give a consistent character to political action and restore its meaning in multicultural and multireligious societies?
- Does Christian democracy have a future in the postmodern era?
- Can we reconsider the forms of political engagement within the European Union in the context of multiculturalism and multireligiosity?
- Do independent philosophers in Russia have resources to offer an alternative to the current political system? Is it possible to establish the institutions of the rule of law in Russia, while many of its citizens are deprived of rights and have endured the burden of antidemocratic propaganda for decades?
- Ultimately, what theological and metaphysical resources are available for rethinking the foundations and practice of political systems in Europe?
You can join the conference remotely via Zoom - for researchers accredited by the organizers, or purchase a ticket on-site (cash desk opposite).
PROGRAM
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM REGISTRATION
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM PAPERS
WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION, HOW DO WE MOVE BEYOND ANTI-DEMOCRATIC POST-MODERNITY?
Moderator: Antoine Arjakovsky, historian, co-director of the Politics and Religions Department at the Collège des Bernardins
With the contributions of:
INTRODUCTION FOR EMANCIPATORY AND FRATERNAL INTERMEDIARY BODIES
Thérèse du Sartel, philosophy professor, co-founder of Café Dorothy, Paris
THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE: TOWARDS A POLICY OF TRANSMISSION
Théophile de Muizon, parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament
10:55 AM - 11:10 AM DISCUSSION
11:10 AM - 11:20 AM COFFEE BREAK
OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Rémi Brague, philosopher, member of the Institut de France
FROM THE WAR OF IDENTITIES TO PERPETUAL PEACE: REFOUNDING THE UNIVERSAL AND THE COMMON GOOD WITHOUT RATIONALISM OR ABSTRACTION. THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE
Emmanuel Tourpe, philosopher, member of the Catholic Academy
HOW TO BREAK FREE FROM POST-MODERN DIPLOMACY?
Book presentation: To overcome war: defeating Russian aggression against Ukraine and democracy, (Desclée de Brouwer, 2023)
Antoine Arjakovsky, historian, co-director of the Politics and Religion Department at the Collège des Bernardins 12:35 - 12:50 DISCUSSION
12:50 BOOK SIGNINGS
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM LUNCH BREAK
WHAT RESOURCES ARE NEEDED TO ESTABLISH A FAIR RULE OF LAW IN RUSSIA?
Session in English and French with no translation. English and French.
Featuring the following speakers:
RUSSIA: FROM "NATIONAL CIVILIZATION" TO THE RULE OF LAW
Yulia Sineokaya, PhD in Philosophy, President of IPI (Independent Philosophy Institute), Associate Researcher at HIPHIMO of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Associate Teacher-Researcher at CREE INALCO
WHO ARE THE IDEOLOGUES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE?
Juliette Faure, PhD in Political Science, Associate at CERI (Sciences Po, CNRS), Temporary Teaching and Research Attaché (ATER) at Paris Panthéon-Assas University
THE LIMITS OF LAW IN RUSSIAN PSEUDO-CONSERVATISM. THE CASE OF VALERY ZORKIN
Alexey Zhavoronkov, PhD in Philosophy, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt
CHURCH AND STATE: NIKOLAI BERDYAEV'S VIEW OF THE POLITICAL ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN CHRISTIAN SOCIETY
Ekaterina Rozova, PhD in Philosophy, Visiting Researcher, Faculty of Letters, Sorbonne University
3:45 PM - 4:15 PM DISCUSSION
4:15 PM - 4:30 PM BREAK
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM CONCLUSIONS
Guennadi Gudkov, Russian politician, founder of the Russian Democratic Club in Paris
Igor Gran, writer
Russia’s "New Conservatism" as Pseudo-Conservatism
It has long become commonplace among scholars and non-scholars to speak of a conservative turn in Russia in the past 10 to 15 years. In my paper, I will take a different approach, arguing that this turn is, in fact, anti-conservative, as its essential features are directly opposite to the ones of mainstream conservatism. In the first part, I will give six reasons why it is counterproductive to use the term ‘conservatism’ while describing the social and political developments in Russia before and after the invasion of Ukraine. In the second part, I will reintroduce the notion of pseudo-conservatism (borrowed from Adorno and Hofstadter) and explain its main elements on specific examples of contemporary Russian politics, with its instrumentalization of various (religious, ethical, legal, and social) discourses for the sake of justifying its situational, ahistorical and anti-intellectual orientation. In conclusion, I will explain how the notion of pseudo-conservatism can help us understand social and political developments in Russia not as an isolated case but as part of a broader perspective of the worldwide crisis of conservatism.
15 June [past event]
Institut d’études slaves, 9 rue Michelet 75006 Paris
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ПРОГРАММА / PROGRAMME
10:00
Вступительное слово / Introduction Юлия Подорога (Eur’Orbem, CERCEC/EHESS, Institut de philosophie indépendant)
10:10 – 10:40
Юлия Синеокая (HIPHIMO/INALCO, Institut de philosophie indépendant): Будущее Института философии в эмиграции
10:40 – 11:10
Екатерина Розова (Eur'Orbem, Institut de philosophie indépendant): Вопросы самоидентификации и проекты написания истории русской философии в эмиграции
11:10 – 11:30
кофе-брейк / pause-café
КРУГЛЫЙ СТОЛ / TABLE RONDE
11:30 – 12:45
модератор Дарья Синичкина (Eur'Orbem), Juliette Faure (Sciences Po de Paris), Françoise Lesourd (Université de Lyon), Константин Морозов (Мемориал,CERCEC/EHESS), Наталия Пашкеева (CERCEC/EHESS), Ilya Platov (INALCO)
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Organisation: Eur’Orbem, Sorbonne Université, Institut de Philosophie Indépendant
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/3882261746?pwd=SkErMzJxN1R0RjhvNW9XQlYvUHVkZz09
Women’s reproductive rights in Russia and Belarus are systematically violated. The origins of this problem can be traced back to the dehumanizing practices and paternalistic tradition of Soviet maternal health care. A legacy of the Soviet system is the high level of obstetric aggression and the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth, the restriction of women’s right to partner birth, and the criminalization of alternative midwifery. At present, an accelerating demographic crisis and the revival of the traditionalist rhetoric of “keeping the family strong” provide justification for oppressing abortion rights.
At the same time, (pseudo)conservative rhetoric often masks the problem of forced abortion. Gynecologists and psychiatrists repeatedly promote abortion among women with psychiatric diagnoses in order to avoid ‘transmitting the disease to their offspring’. In some cases, pregnant women in psychiatric hospitals are physically abused to induce a miscarriage. In Belarus, the current political situation has made it virtually impossible to monitor cases of violations of women's reproductive rights, including those held in closed security institutions (hospitals, maternity hospitals, neuropsychiatric dispensaries, and prisons).
Our goal is to draw attention to both sides of reproductive coercion – pregnancy promoting (including the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies) and pregnancy avoiding - in relation to the violence and control produced by society and the state. Our main presentation will highlight the situation in Russia and Belarus. We kindly invite all participants to take part in the discussion following the main presentation, either (1) by giving their feedback on Russia and Belarus or (2) by making a comparison to other countries. The discussion will touch upon the following questions:
- What is the impact of domestic violence on reproductive coercion?
- How do the neoliberal logic of ‘bio-responsible parenthood’ and the statist biopolitical control coexist and influence each other?
- Do pro-life/pro-choice social movements and academic debates somehow shape this coexistence?
- What tactics do women use to avoid biopolitical control?
- What are the mechanisms of silencing violations of reproductive rights?
Authors of the main presentation:
- Sergei Shevchenko - Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (Belgrade, Serbia)
- Volha Davydzik - DFG Research training group Cultures of Critique at Leuphana University (Lüneburg, Germany)
- Anna Ozhiganova - DFG Research Center for Advanced Studies “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in Global Perspective,” Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)
- Olga Vinogradova - The Institute for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Basel (IBMB), project: “Decision making in times of scarce resources: A mixed-method study” (Basel, Switzerland).
- Nadzeya Iliushenka - PhD student at European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania).
- Alexey Zhavoronkov - Institute of Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany).
For further information, please, contact: Sergei Shevchenko shevchenko_sergei@yahoo.com
Online event: Zoom
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The Turgenev Library in Paris took its name shortly after the death of the writer, who supported the initiative of nihilist students (mostly female) close to Narodniks and the revolutionary magazine “Vpered! (Forward!)”, published clandestinely in Paris. It was not the only enterprise of its kind in Europe, launched by young radicals and supported by the liberal Turgenev. Over time, however, the Parisian reading room became increasingly bourgeois, even conservative; the October Revolution, which radically changed the composition of the Russian diaspora in Paris, only consolidated this trend.
The World War II put an end to the library's existence: its holdings were transported to Berlin, along with the collections of the Polish and Ukrainian libraries in Paris. After the war, the three libraries managed to rise from the ashes, with members of the Paris Masonic Lodges playing a key role in the restoration of the Turgenev Library.
The books in today's Turgenev Library - some of which were still on the shelves of the old “Turgenevka” - bear the stamp of a wide variety of emigrant institutions and associations. Today, the Turgenev Library is not only a collection of books serving the Russian-speaking residents of Paris, but also a living testimony to the complex history of the Russian diaspora in Paris.
These two intertwined stories - the lives of Russian Parisians and the work of the Russian Public Library - will be discussed at the conference.
