(Counter-)Archive: Memorial Practices of the Soviet Underground

About the conference

The conference "(Counter-)Archive: Memorial Practices of the Soviet Underground" is dedicated to the Soviet unofficial culture as an important agent of storage and analysis of tabooed cultural memory. 

Indeed, the Soviet underground was not only the object of repression itself, but also a platform, or rather a whole range of platforms, for the maintenance, systematization and study of neglected or forbidden memory. This level of cultural and philological (self-) reflection and its aesthetics are still little known. The practices of collecting, distributing and archiving were the result of isolation: the absence of institutions, traditionally taking on the work of organizing and therefore effectuating the canonization of cultural heritage. The fact that the delegation of the preservation, selection and analysis of artefacts and ideas was hardly possible led to a culture of amateur archives and private memorial practices.

Format and Participation

The events will take place in a hybrid format from October 13 to 16, 2021.  All participants, who arrive in person, can find an overview with the most important information about our meetings in German Hygiene Museum from our brochure. Guests, who cannot attend personally, can join anytime our conference without any registration by Zoom.

Interested public and listeners are welcome to participate in our meetings!

More information about our conference you can find on our website.

Program (Eng)