[H-verkko] CFP: The Peripheries of the European Revolutionary Process(es) 1917–1923, (5.-7.10.2017)

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan artikkelipyyntöihin on lähetetty uusi ilmoitus:
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The Peripheries of the European Revolutionary Process(es) 1917–1923,
(5.-7.10.2017)
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The fall of the Russian Tsar and the rise to power of the Bolsheviks sent shock
waves across Europe and beyond, initiating a period of momentous revolutionary
transformations. Indeed, the protagonists of 1917 did not envisage their
endeavour as an exclusively Russian phenomenon, but as the first act of the
world revolution. As Lenin reflected in 1921, ‘we have made the start. When,
at what date and time, and the proletarians of which nation will complete this
process is not important. The important thing is that the ice has been
broken’.

The conference aims to bring together many of these often-neglected geographic
and ideological peripheries of the revolutionary process. Rather than focus on
the familiar stories of the German, Austrian, or Hungarian revolutions and the
debates and schisms within the major Social Democratic parties, we aim to
discuss movements and actors that participated in the major transitional
processes in Europe that followed the Russian Revolutions but that have
traditionally fallen outside of the purview of the historiography. These include
not only political organisations of the radical left, but a medley of fellow
travellers: national and independence movements, bourgeois intellectuals and
artists, feminist activists, religious militants, anti-colonial groups, and
others who, even for a short period, associated themselves with the promise of
radical change heralded by the Russian Revolution.

We are especially interested in the question of what motivated these diverse
groups of actors, what drew them to the idea of revolution, how they imagined
the revolutionary process and the future society it promised, and how the images
and sub-images invoked by the Russian Revolution conditioned these motivations.
We find the kaleidoscopic permutation and adaptation of the Russian model and
its conjugation with local and national circumstances and the emergence of
various “Bolshevik myths” particularly pertinent. Local activists often
perceived the Russian developments from their local perspectives,
“translating” it in a peculiar ways. Secondly, we want to ask why many of
these companionships remained only short-term, what led to the frictions,
schisms, and ruptures with the official communist movement, and how these
conflicts were discussed and perceived on the various sides of the debate.
Thirdly, we want to look at the bearing of the Russian example in daily
practices of revolutionary activism and therefore especially encourage local or
regional case studies, asking how local circumstances determined the particular
forms of revolutionary activism, gazing beyond commonplace
political-organisational narratives.

Our confirmed keynote speakers are Stephen Smith from Oxford University, a
world-renowned scholar of the Russian Revolution and its international impact,
author of several books on the Russian and Chinese revolutions, including an
upcoming monograph written for Oxford University Press on the occasion of the
centenary of 1917; and Robert Gerwarth, from University College Dublin, director
at the Centre for War Studies, and author and editor of numerous widely
acclaimed books on the post-war crisis in Central and Eastern Europe.

The conference will take place at the European University Institute in Florence
(Italy), on October 5-7. Participants with no institutional support can apply
for funding of their travel and accommodation expenses. Please send an abstract
(circa 300 words) with a short biographical note to the organisers by March 31,
2017 to: EuropeanRevolution at EUI.eu Participants should receive confirmation of
acceptance no later than May 1, 2017. Written papers (of circa 8,000 words)
should be submitted by September 1, 2017, so they can be circulated to the
participants in time. There be an opportunity to publish some of the papers in
an edited volume or special issue.

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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Pauli Heikkilä <pauli.heikkila at helsinki.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 1.4.2017
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta: https://europeanrevolutionblog.wordpress.com/