About the event

One of this year’s Nobel peace prize winners is the Russian civil society organization Memorial, founded in 1987. According to the prize motivation they have “for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy”. In 2016, the authorities declared Memorial to be a foreign agent, and in 2021 the Russian Supreme Court ruled that Memorial was to be liquidated. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, the authorities declared Memorial to be illegal and took over their offices.

Special guests

How does one continue to work under such conditions? Does it even matter? Our special guest Aleksandra Polivanova will talk about these issues. She is a board member of the now liquidated Memorial, and today represents the Memorial Russia organisation. Born in Moscow, she has studied Nordic and Russian literature and history as well as psychology in Russia, Sweden and the USA. She has also worked as a translator from Swedish, and as a project manager in the cultural field at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. She has curated a number of educational programmes in Moscow for young people in connection with various festivals, she was the writer and director of the documentary theatre project “Grandchildren: The Second Act” based on interviews with grandchildren of perpetrators of the Stalin era. Since 2013, she has been in charge of Memorial's research and education project “Moscow: A Topography of Terror”.

Update 2022-11-29: Veronika Bard who was earlier on the program will not be joining the seminar due to other important obligations.

Registration

Update 2022-11-28: The in person registration page is fully booked. You can still follow the seminar online via the Zoom platform. Register via this link here>>

The event will take place in room Torsten at SSE, Bertil Ohlins gata 5, 113 50 Stockholm. The event will also be streamed online via Zoom for those who cannot join the event in person. Please register via the Trippus platform (here). A confirmation email will be sent to you within a few minutes. If you have not received the confirmation email within 10 minutes, please check your SPAM folder.

Please contact site@hhs.se if you have any questions regarding the event.

Photo by The KonG, Shutterstock.com