The historical research network on violence after Stalinism is funded by the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft. The project is hosted by the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam (ZZF) in cooperation with the Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg and the European University Institute in Florence. The network investigates the relationship between physical violence and state legitimacy after Stalinism. It addresses the following questions: How did the party-state control violence after Stalin? How did political legitimation change after 1956? To what extent did physical violence disappear from politics? How was physical violence in the private sphere dealt with? Did these changes contribute to the decline of communism? The project’s international research network is contributing to the debates about the nature of communist dictatorships, to the causes of the European revolutions of 1989 and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Its aim is to strengthen international cooperation and support comparative and trans national research in the field of communist studies.
Thursday, 27 February
Venue: Senatssaal, Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), Unter den Linden 6, HU-Main Building, First Floor
17.00
Welcome Address
Thomas Lindenberger, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
17.30
Key Note Speech
Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Hamburg Institute for Social Research
Was ist eigentlich "Gewaltforschung"? Einige systematische Bemerkungen
Moderator: Martin Sabrow, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam/Humboldt University of Berlin
Friday, 28 February
Venue: Auditorium, Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Centre, Humboldt University of Berlin, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 3, Ground Floor
9.00 - 10.30
Panel 1: Public Order I
Rasa Baločkaitė, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas
Hidden Violence of Totalitarianism: Policing Soviet Society in Lithuania
Călin Morar-Vulcu, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Arenas of Violence in Late Socialist Romania
Radina Vučetić, University of Belgrade
The Double Game - Using Violence at the Demonstrations against the War in Vietnam in Socialist Yugoslavia
Commentator: Thomas Lindenberger, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
11.00-12.15
Panel 2: Public Order II
Matěj Kotalík, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
The Interaction of Hooligans, Police and Bystanders in East German 1950´s – 1970´s Public Space
Sabine Rutar, Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg
On the Meaning of Violence at a Cold War Border, 1970s-1980s: Public Riots between Trieste and Rijeka
Commentator: Alf Lüdtke, University of Erfurt
13.45 -15.45
Panel 3: Military, the Security Forces and Society
Jan C. Behrends, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
"My byli na etikh voinakh - we served in these wars." Continuities of Violence from Afghanistan to Chechnya
Alena Maklak, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
The Pursuit of Manliness: Justifying "Barrack Violence" in the Narratives of Former Soviet Army Soldiers
Robert Lučić, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
Bonded in War—The Yugoslav People’s Army and Violent Communities in East Slavonia 1991
Isabel Ströhle, University of Regensburg
Conflicting Visions of Loyalty, Legitimacy and Legality: The Story of a State Security Agent on Trial in Socialist Kosovo (1968)
Commentator: Felix Schnell, Humboldt University of Berlin
16.15 - 18.15
Panel 4: Legitimacy and State Violence
Michal Kopeček, Institute of Contemporary History, Prague
Law and Order, "Civilised Violence" and the Revolutions of 1989 in East Central Europe
Michal Pullmann, Charles University in Prague
The State, the (In)Visibility of Violence and Everyday "Normalisation" in Czechoslovakia
Jens Gieseke, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
The Future of Torture after Stalin. Stasi Discourses on Violent Practices in the Age of "Socialist Legality”
Commentator: Ulf Brunnbauer, Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg
Saturday, 1 March
Venue: Auditorium, Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 3, Ground Floor
9.00 - 10.30
Panel 5: Biopolitics and Education I
Péter Apor, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest
Intimate Violence: State Legitimacy, Sexual Violence and Citizenship in Hungary 1960-1989
Jennifer Rasell, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam
(Violent) Care Dynamics in Children’s Homes in 1980s Hungary
Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Jagiellonian University of Krakow
The Culture of Violence, Socialist Modernity and Social Health. Domestic Violence in People’s Poland of 1970s and 1980s
Commentator: Franziska Exeler, European University Institute, Florence
10.45 – 12.30
Panel 6: Biopolitics and Education II
Muriel Blaive, Charles University in Prague
Modernity and Violence: Giving Birth East and West from the 1950s to the 1990s
Pavel Kolář, European University Institute, Florence
The Death Penalty and Sacrifice after 1945
Commentator: Mischa Gabowitsch, Einstein Forum, Potsdam
Concluding Statements
Project directors: Jan C. Behrends, Pavel Kolář and Thomas Lindenberger
