Women’s Experience in the (Post)Socialist Bloc: Terror, Resistance, Memory

Question 1

March 28
Friday

Answer

Opening

Irina Shcherbakova (Memorial Zukunft, Germany): The Memorial Society and Its Research on Women's Experiences in the GULAGs Over the Past 30 Years: An Overview

Panel 1. Women in the Soviet Gulag camps and Exile: Experience and Memory
Moderator: Evelina Rudenko (Memorial Zukunft, Berlin)

Alain Blum (EHESS, France): A World of Women? Deportees from Lithuania and Ukraine in Siberia in 1939–1953

Oksana Kis (The Ethnology Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine): Decolonizing the Gulag: How Ukrainian Women’s Voices Can Change Our Understanding of Imprisonment

Irina Sandomirskaya (Södertörn University, Sweden): Women’s Memory of the Gulag: The Object as Material Experience, Historical Testimony, and a Figure of Silence

Luba Jurgenson (University of Sorbonne, France): Women’s Written Testimonies About the Camp

Discussion and Q&A
Discussant: Sofia Tchouikina (University Paris-8, France)

Lunch

Panel 2. Resistance in the Socialist Bloc Through the Lens of Gender Relations

Women in Resistance Through the Eyes of Witnesses: East Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia
Moderator: Uta Gerlant (Memorial Deutschland, Germany)

Participants:
Ulrike Poppe (Politician, Germany)
Ewa Maria Slaska (Writer, Poland and Germany)
Yevhen Zakharov (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Ukraine)
Mikhail Sheinker (Independent Researcher)

Coffee Break

Moderator: Simone Bellezza (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy)

Arthur Clech (National Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium): "Tema" or Sexual Minorities in the Late Soviet Period: Class, National, and Gender Issues

Ana Marija Koželnik (Research Center for the History of Transformations, Vienna University, Austria): A Latecomer Among Yugoslav Feminisms? Feminist Textual Interventions in Slovenia, 1982-1990

Anna Sidorevich (Sciences Po, France): Christian Feminism in the USSR: A Historical Overview of the Religious Women’s Club "Maria"

Coffee Break

Zuzana Madarova (Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia): Gender Aspects of Anti-Communist Resistance in Czechoslovakia

Alina Doboszewska (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Biographical Experience of Ukrainian Female Dissidents

Discussion and Q&A
Discussant: Juliane Fürst (ZZF Potsdam, Germany)

Question 2

March 29
Saturday

Answer

Panel 3. The Right Turn in Russia and Europe: Anti-Genderism, Fight Against LGBTQ+ persons and New Colonial Policy

Moderator: Alla Morozova (Memorial Vilnius and EHESS, France)

Izabela Desperak (University of Lodz, Poland): The Anti-Gender Movement and Its Central and East European Main Actors

Benjamin Höhne (Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany): Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht — the Lurching Course of an Anti-Establishment Party with a Dominant Female Leader

Evelina Chayka (EQUAL PostOst, Germany): Repressive Policies Against LGBTQ+ Persons in Russia Over the Last Decade

Marina Yusupova (Edinburgh Napier University): Mobilising Imperial Masculinity — Gender, Power and the Struggle for Global Recognition in Russia

Discussion

Coffee Break

Roundtable. Gender – the main enemy of the Rights?

Host: Daniela Steila (University of Turin, Italy)

To what extent are right-wing values universal? Could they unite regimes and societies across the globe into a new geopolitical bloc?
What drives the hostility toward gender and LGBTQ+ rights? Is it a manifestation of discontent with liberal values?
How does conservatism in Russia compare to global trends, and to what degree is it shaped by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine? Are Russia's right-wing movements part of a broader global agenda, or do they represent a unique case?
In light of the growing anti-gender movements in politics and culture across various countries, what countermeasures could be taken? Could this resistance to anti-genderism become a unifying platform for different communities and nations?

Participants:
– Maryna Shevtsova (KU Leuven, Belgium)
– Nadezhda Beliakova (University of Bielefeld, Germany)
– Tamara Chaplin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
– Natalia Radzina (Editor-in-Chief Charter97.org)

Question 3

March 28
Friday

10:00 – 10:15

Opening

Question 4

Answer

Irina Shcherbakova (Memorial Zukunft, Germany): The Memorial Society and Its Research on Women's Experiences in the GULAGs Over the Past 30 Years: An Overview

Question 5

Answer

Panel 1. Women in the Soviet Gulag camps and Exile: Experience and Memory

Moderator: Evelina Rudenko (Memorial Zukunft, Berlin)

Question 6

Answer

Alain Blum (EHESS, France): A World of Women? Deportees from Lithuania and Ukraine in Siberia in 1939–1953

Question 7

Answer

Oksana Kis
(The Ethnology Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine): Decolonizing the Gulag: How Ukrainian Women’s Voices Can Change Our Understanding of Imprisonment

Question 8

Answer

Irina Sandomirskaya (Södertörn University, Sweden): Women’s Memory of the Gulag: The Object as Material Experience, Historical Testimony, and a Figure of Silence

Question 9

Answer

Luba Jurgenson (University of Sorbonne, France): Women’s Written Testimonies About the Camp

Question 10

Answer

Discussion and Q&A
Discussant: Sofia Tchouikina (University Paris-8, France)

Question 11

12:30 – 14:00

Lunch

Question 12

Answer

Panel 2. Resistance in the Socialist Bloc Through the Lens of Gender Relations

Question 13

Answer

Women in Resistance Through the Eyes of Witnesses. East Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia

Moderator: Uta Gerlant (Memorial Deutschland, Germany)

Participants:
Ulrike Poppe (Politician, Germany)
Ewa Maria Slaska (Writer, Poland and Germany)
Yevhen Zakharov (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Ukraine)
Mikhail Sheinker (Independent Researcher)

Question 14

Answer

Coffee Break

Question 15

Answer

Moderator: Simone Bellezza (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy)

Question 16

Answer

Arthur Clesh (National Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium): "Tema" or Sexual Minorities in the Late Soviet Period: Class, National, and Gender Issues

Question 17

Answer

Ana Marija Koželnik (Research Center for the History of Transformations, Vienna University, Austria): A Latecomer Among Yugoslav Feminisms? Feminist Textual Interventions in Slovenia, 1982-1990

Question 18

Answer

Anna Sidorevich (Sciences Po, France): Christian Feminism in the USSR: A Historical Overview of the Religious Women’s Club "Maria"

Question 19

Answer

Coffee Break

Question 20

Answer

Zuzana Madarova (Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia): Gender Aspects of Anti-Communist Resistance in Czechoslovakia

Question 21

Answer

Alina Doboszewska (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Biographical Experience of Ukrainian Female Dissidents

Question 22

Answer

Discussion and Q&A

Discussant: Juliane Fürst
(ZZF Potsdam, Germany)

Question 23

March 29
Saturday

Answer

Panel 3. The Right Turn in Russia and Europe: Anti-Genderism, Fight Against LGBTQ+ persons and New Colonial Policy

Moderator: Alla Morozova (Memorial Vilnius and EHESS, France)

Question 24

Answer

Izabela Desperak (University of Lodz, Poland): The Anti-Gender Movement and Its Central and East European Main Actors

Question 25

Answer

Benjamin Höhne (Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany): Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht — the Lurching Course of an Anti-Establishment Party with a Dominant Female Leader

Question 26

Answer

Evelina Chayka (EQUAL PostOst, Germany): Repressive Policies Against LGBTQ+ Persons in Russia Over the Last Decade

Question 27

Answer

Marina Yusupova (Edinburgh Napier University): Mobilising Imperial Masculinity — Gender, Power and the Struggle for Global Recognition in Russia

Question 28

Answer

Discussion

Question 29

Answer

Coffee Break

Question 30

Answer

Roundtable. Gender – the main enemy of the Rights?

Host: Daniela Steila (University of Turin, Italy)

To what extent are right-wing values universal? Could they unite regimes and societies across the globe into a new geopolitical bloc?
What drives the hostility toward gender and LGBTQ+ rights? Is it a manifestation of discontent with liberal values?
How does conservatism in Russia compare to global trends, and to what degree is it shaped by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine? Are Russia's right-wing movements part of a broader global agenda, or do they represent a unique case?
In light of the growing anti-gender movements in politics and culture across various countries, what countermeasures could be taken? Could this resistance to anti-genderism become a unifying platform for different communities and nations?

Participants:
– Maryna Shevtsova (KU Leuven, Belgium)
– Nadezhda Beliakova (University of Bielefeld, Germany)
– Tamara Chaplin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
– Natalia Radzina (Editor-in-Chief Charter97.org)

Women’s Experience in the (Post)Socialist Bloc: Terror, Resistance, Memory

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