| Beschreibung |
While the topic of decolonisation has grown in Western academia in recent decades, the study of Russian imperialism and colonialism has been severely under-researched. Russia's unprecedented full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has highlighted how limited the state of the art on this topic is, and how underrepresented the voices of scholars from the places Russia has colonised over the past centuries (including indigenous non-white Russians) really are. This seminar aims to provide a platform for learning about the history and patterns of Russian colonialism through the lens of Weimar. At first glance, Weimar doesn't seem to have suffered or been affected much by Russian imperial ambitions, but by analysing the Russian heritage left here, such as monuments, street names, hotels, churches, cemeteries, we will trace how some of these structures actually communicate imperial power dynamics over the centuries and what the intentions behind the construction of these objects really were. Weimar, for example, has the only statue of Pushkin in Germany. It was erected in 1949 at the instigation of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship. The erection of statues of Pushkin in the countries occupied by the Soviet Union was intended to secure the established power order culturally in the long term and to limit it to a focus on Russia and Russian culture, which is a method of cultural imperialism. This strategy can still be seen today in a number of symbolic markers in public space. These include Moscow Street and the city's central symbolic cemetery. The establishment also succeeded through the obligatory teaching of Russian in schools and the presence of the Soviet army in the GDR as a means of controlling the population. The aim of this seminar is not to compare different types of imperialism, as we condemn all forms of colonialism and oppression. Our aim is to shed light on an overlooked Russian imperialism by exploring different sites of its influence and by allowing students to research a site or phenomenon of their interest in Weimar. The seminar will be organised as a block event and the results of the seminar will be presented and discussed in an online workshop with Ukrainian students, in collaboration with the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Kyiv. Works on the same topic from Ukraine will also be exchanged. |
