B5112 - Experiences and Memories fo Eastern Europe (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will possess a critical and in-depth knowledge of a) the historiographical debate about the national and transnational configuration of European experiences and memories; b) the different methodological approaches to study them and, c) the processes related to the redefinition of the coordinates of public and institutional memory in contemporary Europe. They will have acquired a critical knowledge of the key concepts and tools apt to identifying factors of change and of continuity in the debate on memory policies and how these can be reshaped with regard to political-institutional, social and gender factors. Also, they can recognize the relevance of and the interest in historical memory on the part of communities in contemporary Eastern European cultures - including the artistic production and public communication - and the specific role of historiography in fostering a critical and scientific approach. They will be able to outline a research question by critically selecting and evaluating the sources necessary to address it so as to be able to elaborate scientifically grounded interpretations; they will have achieved capabilities to produce contents of scientific quality that can be disseminated through the various channels of historical knowledge communication, teaching included, with an awareness of the implications for dissemination and for teaching.

Course contents

This module of the course starts from the current politics of memory of World War II, and the high conflict or divergence between them, and returns to how states and societies dealt with these traumatic experiences. While the western part of Europe, despite very different wartime experiences, worked toward a common set of memory principles and practices in the postwar decades, thanks largely to European integration, the eastern part of the continent "split" on this issue after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The module on Eastern Europe reflects on the peculiarities of the military and political violence it underwent in the years 1930-53, through the study of specific case studies in national and transnational perspectives, and the analysis of primary sources. We will examine the construction of narratives about World War II, studying the hesitations of state policies and the emergence of alternative discourses within parts of society.

The module will be divided into the following 3 thematical parts that will change from one A.Y. to the other:

1 -- Looking backward: from today’s controversies to yesterday’s divergent war experiences

2 -- Forgotten Victims

3 -- The difficult confrontation with perpetrators' experience

Readings/Bibliography

It is strongly recommended for students with no previous experience in Russian and Soviet history to read at least one overview of 20th and 21st century Russian history before the course begins, or at least the second week of the course. For example, Fitzpatrick, Sheila. A Brief History of the Soviet Union. NY: Columbia UP, 2022 or Graziosi, Andrea. L’Unione sovietica, 1914-1991. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2011 (exists in ebook format obtainable through AlmaRe; it is the most comprehensive work on the Soviet period, and contains reflections on historiography up to 2010).

The students may also find useful insights and overviews in Edele, Mark. Stalinism at War: The Soviet Union in World War II. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021; idem. Debates on Stalinism. Issues in Historiography. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020; e idem Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Whole Story. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2023.

In 2025/26 the course explores cases from various Soviet republics and Poland. The lecturer will provide interested students with bibliographical suggestions on other parts of Eastern Europe.

Texts studied in class (list A1):

1. Pakier, Małgorzata, and Joanna Wawrzyniak, eds. “Memory and Change in Eastern Europe: How Special?” In Memory and Change in Europe: Eastern Perspectives, 1–20. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015.

2. Hirsch, Francine. “The Soviet Union at the Palace of Justice: Law, Intrigue, and International Rivalry in the Nuremberg Trials.” In Stalin’s Soviet Justice “Show” Trials, War Crimes Trials, and Nuremberg, edited by David Crowe, 171–98. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

3. Koustova, Emilia. “(Un)Returned from the Gulag: Life Trajectories and Integration of Postwar Special Settlers.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 16, no. 3 (2015): 589–620. 10.1353/kri.2015.0038

4. McBride, Jared. “Contesting the Malyn Massacre: The Legacy of Inter-Ethnic Violence and the Second World War in Eastern Europe.” Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, no. 2405 (2016): 3–78.

5. Konkka, Olga. “Le Livre Noir d’Ilya Ehrenbourg et de Vassili Grossman en Russie et en Occident : au cœur des enjeux liés à la mémoire de la Shoah.” Revue française d’histoire du livre 141 (2020). https://doi.org/doi.org/10.47421/rfhl141_215-229 .

6. Moine, Nathalie. «‘Chères petites, laissez-moi sortir’. La mise à mort des patients de l’hôpital psychiatrique de Vinnitsa : sources judiciaires, mémoire locale et histoire psychiatrique». Revue d’histoire de La Shoah, no. 214 (2021): 21–54.

7. chapter 4 in Zeltser, Arkadi. Unwelcome Memory. Holocaust Monuments in the Soviet Union. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem: The International Institute for Holocaust Research, 2018, 215–273.

8. chapter 3 in Martin, Barbara. Dissident Histories in the Soviet Union: From De-Stalinization to Perestroika. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, 61—81. [The opposition to the rehabilitation of Stalin]

9. Irina Tcherneva and Juliette Denis, “Je me souviens de tout, Richard (Rolands Kalniņš, Studio de Riga, 1967): une manifestation précoce d’une mémoire concurrente de la Grande Guerre patriotique,” The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, no. 12 (2011), http://pipss.revues.org/3875 .

10. Franczak, Grzegorz. “L’irrapresentabile. I perpetratori polacchi, Jedwabne e il caso di ‘Aftermath’ (2012), un ‘Holocaust horror film.’” In I perpetratori della Shoah nella letteratura, nel cinema e in altri media, edited by Alessandro Costazza, 197–212. Firenze: Giuntina, 2023.

11. Voisin, Vanessa. “The 1963 Krasnodar Trial. Extraordinary Media Coverage for an Ordinary Soviet Trial of Second World War Perpetrators.” Cahiers du monde russe 61, no. 3–4 (2020): 383–428. https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.12031 

Teaching methods

The course includes lectures and seminars in which active student participation is required. For the preparation of class discussions, texts will be uploaded to the “teaching materials” section of the course (online space "Virtuale").

The first section of the module consists mainly of lectures that outline some specific characteristics of experiences of political violence, war, and transition in Eastern Europe. The second section, which is thematic, will address the issue of victims forgotten in the official memory of both World War II and political repression. The third section will examine various examples of representations of perpetrators.

Assessment methods

This 6 CFU course is part of the 12 CFU Integrated Course "SOCIETIES IN TRANSITION AND CULTURES OF CONFLICT IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE." (B5110)

For both attending and non-attending students, the exam for the integrated course (12 credits) is oral.

For students attending the exam will focus on

- approximately 20 essays/chapters discussed in class during the two courses: list A1 above + list B

For students not attending the exam will focus on

- approximately 10 essays/chapters discussed in class during the course Experiences and Memories of Western Europe (list B) + the following volume:

· Filippo Focardi, Bruno Groppo (eds.), L'Europa e le sue memorie. Culture e politiche del ricordo dopo il 1989, Viella, Rome 2013

- 15 essays from the course Experiences and Memories of Eastern Europe (list A2, below)

If the student has included the Integrated course (12 credits) in their study plan, the final grade is the arithmetic mean of the grades obtained in the two exams relating to the two modules, taken during the same exam session. The code of the module is then B5112.

If the student has included the course Experiences and Memories of Eastern Europe (6 CFU, code B5230) in their study plan, the final grade will be based on the assessment of the exam relating to the module.

In both cases, there will be six exam sessions:
May, June, September; [end of October], January; [March]

 

 

Students attending the course are required to actively participate in lessons. The grade is based on an overall assessment of participation in lessons and a final oral exam designed to test mastery of the content studied during the lessons, including the academic texts on list A1. In addition to the six exam sessions scheduled for the module as part of the Integrated Course, a seventh exam session will be organized in January 2026 for attending and non-attending students of the course Experiences and Memories of Eastern Europe only (id est B5230).

Non-attending students are required to pass one oral exam covering the texts on list A2, which are available on the course's virtual space. Students are expected to pay attention to the content of the texts, as well as to the sources used by the authors and the methodological approach chosen.

List A2

1. Pakier, Małgorzata, and Joanna Wawrzyniak, eds. “Memory and Change in Eastern Europe: How Special?” In Memory and Change in Europe: Eastern Perspectives, 1–20. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015.

2. Hirsch, Francine. “The Soviet Union at the Palace of Justice: Law, Intrigue, and International Rivalry in the Nuremberg Trials.” In Stalin’s Soviet Justice “Show” Trials, War Crimes Trials, and Nuremberg, edited by David Crowe, 171–98. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

3. Koustova, Emilia. “(Un)Returned from the Gulag: Life Trajectories and Integration of Postwar Special Settlers.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 16, no. 3 (2015): 589–620. 10.1353/kri.2015.0038

4. McBride, Jared. “Contesting the Malyn Massacre: The Legacy of Inter-Ethnic Violence and the Second World War in Eastern Europe.” Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, no. 2405 (2016): 3–78.

5. Konkka, Olga. “Le Livre Noir d’Ilya Ehrenbourg et de Vassili Grossman en Russie et en Occident : au cœur des enjeux liés à la mémoire de la Shoah.” Revue Française d’histoire Du Livre 141 (2020). https://doi.org/doi.org/10.47421/rfhl141_215-229 .

6. Moine, Nathalie. «‘Chères petites, laissez-moi sortir’. La mise à mort des patients de l’hôpital psychiatrique de Vinnitsa : sources judiciaires, mémoire locale et histoire psychiatrique». Revue d’histoire de La Shoah, no. 214 (2021): 21–54.

7. chapter 4 in Zeltser, Arkadi. Unwelcome Memory. Holocaust Monuments in The Soviet Union. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem: The International Institute for Holocaust Research, 2018, 215–273.

8. chapter 5 in Zeltser, Arkadi. Unwelcome Memory. Holocaust Monuments in The Soviet Union. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem: The International Institute for Holocaust Research, 2018, 273-321.

9. chapter 3 in Martin, Barbara. Dissident Histories in the Soviet Union: From De-Stalinization to Perestroika. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, 61—81. [The opposition to the rehabilitation of Stalin]

10. Irina Tcherneva and Juliette Denis, “Je me souviens de tout, Richard (Rolands Kalniņš, Studio de Riga, 1967): une manifestation précoce d’une mémoire concurrente de la Grande Guerre patriotique,” The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, no. 12 (2011), http://pipss.revues.org/3875 .

11. Franczak, Grzegorz. “L’irrapresentabile. I perpetratori polacchi, Jedwabne e il caso di ‘Aftermath’ (2012), un ‘Holocaust horror film.’” In I perpetratori della Shoah nella letteratura, nel cinema e in altri media, edited by Alessandro Costazza, 197–212. Firenze: Giuntina, 2023.

12. Rudling, Per Anders. “The Khatyn Massacre in Belorussia: A Historical Controversy Revisited.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 26, no. 1 (2012): 29–58. [Il massacro di Khatyn in Bielorussia: una controversia storica rivisitata]

13. Chrobaczyński, Jacek, and Piotr Trojański. “Auschwitz and Katyn in Political Bondage. The Process of Shaping Memory in Communist Poland.” In Memory and Change in Europe: Eastern Perspectives, edited by Małgorzata Pakier and Joanna Wawrzyniak, 246–63. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015. [Auschwitz e Katyn in schiavitù politica: il processo di formazione della memoria nella Polonia comunista]

14. Zhurzhenko, Tatiana. "Legislating Historical Memory in Post-Soviet Ukraine", in Memory Laws and Historical Justice: The Politics of Criminalizing the Past, ed by Elezar Barkan e Ariella Lang,Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, 97–130, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94914-3_5 [Legiferare la memoria storica nell'Ucraina post-sovietica]

15. chapter 2 “Una ‘nuova’ narrazione dell’epoca sovietica” in Borelli, Andrea. Nella Russia di Putin. La costruzione di un’identità post-sovietica. Studi storici. Roma: Carrocci, 2023, 49–76.

 

In assessing oral exams, both for attending and non-attending students, particular attention will be paid to the student's ability to navigate the sources and bibliographic material for the exam in order to extract useful information that will enable them to illustrate topics and issues and connect them to one another.

The following will therefore be assessed:

- Mastery of the content

- Ability to summarize and analyze topics and concepts

- Ability to express oneself adequately and with language appropriate to the subject matter.

The achievement by the student of a comprehensive understanding of the topics covered in class, together with their critical application, and good command of expression and specific language will be assessed with excellent grades.

A rote knowledge of the subject, together with the ability to synthesise and analyse in correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to fair marks.

Gaps in knowledge and/or inappropriate language—even in a context of minimal knowledge of the exam material—will lead to grades that do not exceed a pass.

Gaps in knowledge, inappropriate language, and lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

During lectures, the teacher will use PowerPoint presentations containing textual and visual sources. Lectures will sometimes be supplemented with audiovisual materials and documentary sources. Study materials such as articles or short essays will be made available to students on the “Virtual” course page.

 

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Vanessa Voisin