Authors

Hanna Matt⁶; Olena Palko³; Timothy Blauvelt⁵; Sophie Qiaoyun Peng²; Maria Chiara Franceschelli⁴; Steve Swerdlow¹;  ¹ University of Southern California, United States;  ² University of Glasgow, UK;  ³ University of Basel, Switzerland;  ⁴ Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy;  ⁵ American Councils / Ilia State University, Georgia;  ⁶ University of Manchester, UK

Discussion

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022 intensified academic discussions about decolonisation of and in histories of post-Soviet regions from the Baltic states to the South Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia. Attitudes towards the Tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet past still vary considerably across these places, but has the invasion caused discussions to combine and converge as well as to accelerate? Has the invasion prompted anglophone scholarship to draw new, firmer connections between experiences of colonisation and decolonisation in these various regions? In what ways might the invasion cause scholars from outside these regions to reconsider their own positionality and the importance of listening to diverse local voices on these issues? This roundtable event, organised by the Eurasian Regions Study Group and the Peripheral Histories? team, encourages participants to reflect on the subject and process of decolonisation in discrete national contexts and to consider whether emphasising their commonalities or differences is the best route to comprehension.