Sunday, September 23, 2012

An Introduction to the Imagined Interregnum


Turbulent years of the Great War, revolutions of 1917 and the civil war redrew not only the Russian borders, but reshaped also its academic life. It isolated Russian scholarly societies from the international academic debate and during the first post-revolutionary years, the academic contacts with the Western colleagues were broken or were arranged in sporadic ways only. The isolation was intensified by the rise of Bolshevik rule and by the commercial blockade of Western countries. 

After these events, many of the scholars who left Russia were working for the future Russia on different arenas. At the same time, the scholars in the Soviet Russia were eager to establish contacts with western academic communities and authorities. The new situation generated new kind of collaboration, academic and political. A lively network of Russian scholars were working on an multinational base for different political and academic goals. This period of political turmoil and academic stagnation can be considered also as Imagined Interregnum, as a period of when one started to precede and prepare something more sustainable when it comes to the re-organisation of the Russian state, regardless of the ruling powers. 

Researchers 

Having this as a common basis, each  member of the project Imagined Interregnum has his/her case. The researchers of the are Dr. Kirsti Ekonen (University of Helsinki), MA Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen (University of Turku), MA Janina Kruglikova (University of Turku) and professor Dr. Evgeni Petrov (St. Petersburg State University). For viewing the individual focuss areas and interests, click the name of researcher. Together the results of the project will widen the understanding of the academic “Russian diaspora”: the case studies of the project members will show the connections of academic and political activity, they will describe the multipolar context of the activity. 

Colloquium at the Slavonic Library

The research project will organize a two-day academic colloquium in Helsinki in August 2013 in collaboration with the Society of Finnish Slavists and the Slavonic Library at the National Library of Finland. The colloquium is funded by the Niilo Helander Foundation. In order to find out more information on this event, please, view the Call for Papers and Preliminary Programme.

Picture: Slavonic Library at the National Library of Czech Republic

The Imagined Interregnum, Colloquium at the Slavonic Library, 5-6 August 2013

Call for Papers:
The Imagined Interregnum. Disintegration and Re-Establishment of Russian Academic Networks in 1917–1924. Colloquium at the Slavonic Library.
5-6 August 2013, National Library of Finland, Helsinki, Finland.
Organised by the research group The Imagined Interregnum (Kirsti Ekonen, Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen, Janina Kruglikova, Evgeni Petrov) in co-operation with the Slavonic Library at the National Library of Finland and the Society of Finnish Slavists.

Call for Papers - deadline extended to 24/01/2013

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Politically turbulent years of the Great War, revolutions of 1917 and the civil war redrew not only the Russian borders, but reshaped also its academic life. It isolated Russian scholarly societies from the international academic debate and during the first post-revolutionary years, the academic contacts with the Western colleagues were broken or were arranged in sporadic ways only. The isolation was intensified by the rise of Bolshevik rule and by the commercial blockade of Western countries. At the same time, the ideas of new Russian state and its academic organisations were discussed and presented by the scholars exiled from Russia.

This period of political turmoil and academic stagnation can be considered also as Imagined Interregnum, as a period of when one started to precede and prepare something more sustainable when it comes to the re-organisation of the Russian state, regardless of the ruling powers.

The Imagined Interregnum, a colloquium at the Slavonic Library, will investigate the ideas and ideologies, which were raised within the Russian academic world in Russia and abroad during the Imagined Interregnum, ie. the years followed by the Russian revolutions till mid-1920s. We invite proposals which range broadly across  

  • The scientific cooperation within the academia, in Russia and in abroad.
  • The political visions and utopian endeavors of future Russia.
  • Economic and humanitarian initiatives between western states and Soviet Russia 
  • Reorganisaton of cultural and scientific relations

The keynote speakers of the colloquium are Dr. Evgeni Petrov (State University, St. Petersburg) and Dr. Lukáš Babka (Slavonic Library, Prague). Dr. Petrov, an expert of the Russian historians in diaspora, will discuss broadly the impact of the Russian scholars onto the Western scientific societies during the Imagined Interregnum. Dr. Babka's keynote lecture will focus on the Russian Historical Archive Abroad (RZIA) and its role for the the Russian emigration heritage in various fields of research.

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Two-day colloquium will be held at the premises of National Library of Finland (Unioninkatu 36). Participation is free. Regrettably, the organisers are unable to provide financial assistance for travel and accommodation.

If you would like to present a paper (max. 20 minutes + 10 minutes discussion), please send an abstract (max.  500 words) including a suitable title and  information about your affiliation and academic degree by 24 January 2013 to imagined.interregnum@gmail.com. Decisions concerning the abstracts will be communicated no later than 15 February 2013.

We are planning a publication on the topic of the colloquium. The selection of the articles will be made after the event.

CFP posters for downloading and printing in A3 and A4 sizes.

Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen

Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen, M.A.
E-mail: jussipekka.hakkarainen@gmail.com
I have graduated from the University of Turku (General History) and University of Helsinki (West and South Slavonic Languages and Cultures; Czech). Recently, I have been employed by the National Library of Finland, where my assignments were related to e-publishing, the Polonica collection and the international co-operation over the digitization projects. Currently, I am preparing my PhD thesis on the theme "Scientific and Political Networks of the Finnish Slavists in 1921-1925".

During the first years of the Bolshevik reign, the academic contacts with the Western colleagues were broken or were arranged in sporadic ways only. There were no permanent structures that could have supported the academic work under these new conditions. The re-establishment of these structures and scientific contacts between the Russian and Western scholars in the early 1920s were triggered by a series of events, where the Finnish Slavists were attached through their political and scientific networks, mainly through the activities of the Academic Relief Committee of Finland (Suomen Yliopistollinen Avustuskomitea, hereafter ARCF).

The key figures of ARCF were Andrey Viktorovitch Igelström (1860–1927), the head of the Russian Library at the University in Helsinki, ethnographer-slavist Viljo Johannes Mansikka (1886–1947) and professor of the Slavonic languages, Jooseppi Julius Mikkola (1866–1946). In my research, I will argue how these scholars were a part of abovementioned development between the years of 1921 and 1925. I have located three spheres of scientific and/or political operations, were the Finnish slavists are present and which do highlight the complexity of this unease period of academic co-operation.

V. J. Mansikka, Maxim Gorky and A. V. Igelström at the balcony of the House of the Learned in Petrograd in 1921.
Picture: Slavonic Library at the National Library of Finland.

Firstly, I will argue that the scientific relationships of Russian scholars with the academic societies in Western started to rebirth in the course of the international food relief programme, which was organized by the ARCF as of spring 1921 onwards. In May 1921, Igelström and Mansikka travelled to Petrograd in order to deliver the collected donations and commodities for the Russian scholars, who had plead the food aid from the Finnish public in March 1921. Mansikka and Igelstöm went into negotiations with Commission for Improving the Living Conditions of Scientists in Petrograd (Петроградская Комиссия по улучшению быта ученых, hereafter PetroKUBU) over the relief for the Russians scholars in future too. The outcome of negotiations was a plan for the international aid for the Russian scientists. The major aims of this agenda were twofold: 1) the arranging the relief (food, clothes etc.) and 2) the exchange of Russian scientific publications that could connect Russian scholars to the debate with the foreign colleagues again.

Secondly, I will argue that also the international book exchange of Russian scientific publications was made possible in the course of food relief programme. In the 1920s, the first actions towards the exchange of Russian scientific literature were made by the joint initiative of Foreign Literature Committee (Комитет иностранной литературы, Kominolit) and Bureau of Science and Technology (Бюро иностранной науки и техники, BINT), but the results were not able to cover the all needs of Russian scholars. In the course of the relief programme, the key figure of PetroKUBU and the Academy of Sciences, Sergey Oldenburg (1863-1934), leaned on Igelström instead of Kominolit and BINT and agreed with him on the exchange of Russian scientific publications with the Western ones, making the Russian Library in Helsinki as an unofficial Bureau des échanges for the Russian Academy of Sciences in Petrograd from 1921 to 1923 and thus linked the Russian scientists to the international academic debate again.

And thirdly, I will discuss in my dissertation how the émigré policy of Czechoslovak government, known as Action Russe (Ruská pomocná akce), was present in the relief programme and how this policy was linked to the networks of the Finnish Slavists through rising scientific interests towards the Slavonic studies in Prague in early 1920s and how this policy was linked to the book exchange of Russian Scientific publications arranged by the Russian Library in Helsinki.

Further reading on this topic:

Hakkarainen, Jussi-Pekka: "Books for the Precious Brains. Re-establishing the International Scientific Relationships with Russian Scholars through the Relief Programme of Academic Relief Committee of Finland in 1921–1925." Sociology of Science and Technology, Vol. 3, Number 1, 2012, pp. 24-44: http://ihst.nw.ru/images/centre/2012_1%20sociology.pdf

Hakkarainen, Jussi-Pekka: Oppineiden talossa. Helsingin yliopiston slavistien kansainväliset verkostot Suomen Yliopistollisen Avustuskomitean toiminnan yhteydessä vuosina 1921-1925. (Master's Thesis in Finnish with a Czech Summary): https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/26631

Portrait of Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen by Jukka Pennanen

Janina Kruglikova

Janina Kruglikova
E-mail: iankru@utu.fi

 Extract of the letter by Vladimir Tukalevsky to Moscow National Bank in New York.
Picture: Slavonic Library at the National Library of Czech Republic

The research project of Janina Kruglikova is focused on the political activity of the Russian Academician M. Rostovtseff who escaped from the Bolsheviks in 1918 through Finland and Sweden using his academic contacts with the foreign colleagues and became one of the organizers of the Russian Liberation Committee in London. The main aim of the Committee was uncompromising struggle with the Bolshevik’s Russia. They informed The Great Britain and Europe about the exact events in Russian during the Civil War, published bulletins and pamphlets against the Soviet Russia the same as a regular magazine “The New Russia” and strongly believed that the White Army would win soon.

Kirsti Ekonen

Kirsti Ekonen 
E-mail: kirsti.ekonen@helsinki.fi
Phone: +358 50 4680135
www:  https://tuhat.halvi.helsinki.fi/portal/fi/persons/kirsti-ekonen%2893df61d0-2137-478e-a2a2-45c84af39baa%29.html






Dr. Kirsti Ekonen has specialized in Russian literature, culture and gender studies. She is the author of the Russian language book on the women writers of Russian Symbolism Tvorets, subekt, zhenshchina (Moscow NLO, 2011) and she is the co-editor and one of the authors of the first Finnish language history of Russian literature Venäläisen kirjallisuuden historia (Gaudeamus – Helsinki University Press, 2011). The book Women and Transformation in Russia, co-edited by her, will be published by Routledge in 2013.

Currently Ekonen is writing the history of the Slavonic Library at the University of Helsinki. The origins of the Library go back to the connection of Finland into the Russian Empire in 1809.  Ekonen will place the history of the Library in a large cultural and political context; the history of the organization and the collections of the Library will provide a new angle to discuss the relations between Finland and Russia. The research will take into account even the microhistorical aspects: the biographies, writings and networks of people working in relation to the Slavonic Library will provide detailed information about the two centuries of the Library.One of the persons related to the history of the Slavonic Library was baron Sergei Korff, who worked a short period as a head of the Library. After his death in 1924 the widow Alletta Van Reypen Korff donated Korff's personal book collection to Helsinki University library.

In the Imagined Interregnum research project Ekonen will examine the last year of Sergei Korff's Finnish period. Korff  worked at Helsinki Alexandr University from 1905 and in 1907 he became a professor of Russian law and Russian constitutional law. He knew many languages and was internationally active scientist and specialist, he took also initiative for creating a program for professor exchange between Finland and United States. He taught Finnish students in Swedish. In Russian newspapers and journals he wrote positively about Finland during the years of oppression. 

After 1917 revolution Korff moved from academy to politics; he became the adjutant of the Russian general governor in the Grand Duchy of Finland. He participated in the negotiations between Finnish politicians and the Provisional Government about the status of Grand Duchy after Nicholas II abdicated. After October 1917 revolution he was forced to flee from Finland. After the European period and a period participating in world politics (like Paris peace conference) he moved to United States. He became a professor of  Georgetown and Coulumbia universities, one of the founders of American Soviet studies. During these years he maintained contacts with Finland, for example he corresponded with the former head of the Helsinki University Library Wilhelm Bolin, who sent him information about Sovien Russia and Finland. The correspondence  provides material for discussing the Imagined Interregnum, especially the ways how Russian-based scholars established academic and other contacts and how their academic and political aims were intertwined.

Ekonen's work on Korff's Finish years is implemented in close collaboration with  the other project member, professor Jevgeni Petrov  from St Petersburg State University, who is the biographer of Sergei Korff. 

Evgeni Petrov


Evgeni Petrov
E-mail: pyotroff@gmail.com
Phone: +7 951 656 22 01
www: http://источниковедение.рф





Evgeni Petrov  is professor of history at Saint-Petersburg State University. He is author of Russian compatriots at the Historical departments in the US Universities at the beginning of the XX century (2001). His research interests are «Diaspora and Refugee Studies», «Think tanks» and foresight studies, «Rossica» and Russian studies.

Historical Memory in Exile: Russian émigré-historians after 1917

During Interregnum period Russian expatriate-scientists had to face to the saving examples from the recent past. Historical memory played an important role in the consolidation of disparate immigrant forces. Having survived the collapse of the “former greatness” in exile, emigration quickly realized that politics divides, but Science and Education promotes the consolidation of national forces. In the circles of the Russian Diaspora there was creative and educational work due to the efforts of the émigré-historians. 

The main trends in the activity of the Russian abroad historians focused on expert, educational, publishing and archival work. The study of social and academic achievements of historians in Exile can explain the internal logic in the development of Russia Abroad History. Some of specialists in Diaspora studies descried their views as open laboratory where can issue an independent Russian public opinion. 

The academic heritage and biographies of Vinogradov, Kondakov, Struve, Rostovtsev, Kiesewetter, Miliukov, Vernadsky, Ryazanovsky illustrates the position of the Russian scientific schools in the UK, France, Czechoslovakia, America and China. Today is relevant to research the problem "Historical Memory in Exile: Russian émigré-historians after 1917". This problematic, reveals all the difficulties and contradictions in the development of Emigrant historiography. Archival documents let not only get in use new scientific data from the history of Russian Abroad, but also to rethink their influence on the establishing of Russian studies in European and American Universities.

The study of works and heritage of Russian historians in Exile can understand and appreciate the contribution of expatriates in the development of world science. Many of them held leading positions in foreign universities and professional associations, defining the development of scientific schools and new directions. Due to Russian emigrants efforts developed not only promising areas of scientific knowledge, but evolved didactics and methodology of new disciplines. “Russian academic group» in the West was not only free and open laboratory of social thought, RAG championed by International Congress of Historical Sciences of the right to speak on behalf of the Russian science. «We are not in exile, we are in the message». Russian historian immigrants had a significant influence on the development of professional periodicals devoted to Slavic and East European studies.  Many of Russian archival collections were collected with support of the Russian Diaspora by Western libraries and archives. Many Russian archivists and librarians facilitate the gathering of the largest collections and archival materials in such area studies as Rossica.

According to archival sources, the emigrants activities in historical organizations and institutions can be describe as the process of establishing Russian independent centers in the UK, Germany, France, Czech Republic, the USA and China. The formation of professional community had their closed cycles and phases of development. It was based on support of humanitarian foundations and charitable organizations with which opened historical and scientific societies and institutions of the Russian Diaspora, archives and periodicals. After the revolution, the majority of historians, immigrants unite around the Russian academic group, which generally led cultural and educational work in the Diaspora, and actively promote the opening of Russian national universities.