Evidence from numerous studies of Gulag survivors suggests that the consequences of the Gulag did not end with its closing under Gorbachev, nor was its influence limited to its prisoners. The Gulag pervaded daily Soviet life because it could ensnare almost anyone. Post-Soviet Russia is still mired in an entrenched culture of repression, which has long included — and continues to include — repressing the memory of Stalinist repression.
This lecture will present a selection of narratives gathered through interviews and from archives in the course of various research projects, conducted since 1989. Each illustrates the usefulness and the challenges of personal accounts in reconstructing or representing experience, and each offers a different understanding of the repression. Through careful examination of how the survivors remember, represent and/or re-conceptualize the terror in their testimonies, we can begin to understand more about the dynamics of repression, survival, and meaning-making.
Nanci Adler is Professor of Memory, History, and Transitional Justice at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and the University of Amsterdam. She has authored and/or edited several works, including Keeping Faith with the Party: Communist Believers Return from the Gulag (2012), The Gulag Survivor (2002), Victims of Soviet Terror: The Story of the Memorial Movement (1993), Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice (2018), (co-edited with A. Weiss-Wendt) The Future of the Soviet Past: The Politics of Memory in Putin’s Russia (2021), and numerous scholarly articles on the consequences of Stalinism. Adler serves on the Academic Advisory Board of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute and the Journal of Genocide Research, and was 2022 Chair of the Academic Working Group of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Her current research focuses on the organization Memorial, transitional justice, oral history and eyewitness testimony, and the legacy of Communism.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Margit Bussmann
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Organizational information
The Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg is offering this event live as a zoom meeting in which viewers can participate in writing via chat.
- We would be pleased if you provided your clear name when dialing into Zoom. Of course, you can also take part in the event under a pseudonym.
- A list of all participants can be viewed by all those involved throughout the event.
- During the lecture, the microphones of the spectators are all automatically muted so that no disturbing background noise is generated. You are welcome to turn on the camera of the spectators during the lecture.
- During the entire event, requests to speak or questions can be asked in writing in the chat.
Recording of the digital lecture
The digital lecture will be recorded for use in the college's media library. Only the speaker, his/her presentation and the moderator will be heard or seen in the recording. Video, audio or chat contributions are not recorded. A "REC" sign at the edge of the picture informs the participants.