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[PAST EVENT] Political Use and Misuse of the Past in Russia, America and Elsewhere
Location
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium200 Stadium Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Access & Features
- Open to the public
As Part of the Three-Part Series: Democracy, Memory, and Resilience
In our lifetime, history has transformed from an academic pursuit or enjoyable reading into a powerful political instrument. Activists worldwide vandalize and destroy monuments to past heroes, differing historical interpretations fuel domestic and international conflicts, and Russian President Vladimir Putin even justified his decision to attack Ukraine with a lengthy history lecture.
In the lecture, Professor Ivan Kurilla will explore the roots of this newfound obsession with history, linking it to the crisis facing large nation-states striving to maintain control over their historical narratives. These narratives were once a key tool for nation-building but are now being challenged by new actors seeking to reclaim their history and agency.
Bio: In the Spring semester of 2025 Ivan Kurilla teaches at Wellesley College as an International Scholar in Residence. Before being forced to leave Russia in 2024 Kurilla taught in European University at St. Petersburg and Volgograd State University. He also taught at Bowdoin College (as a Tallman Visiting Professor) and Wellesley College (as a Mary Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor), conducted research at Dartmouth college (as a Fulbright scholar) and George Washington University.
His main fields of interest include history of Russian – U.S. relations and use of the past for political purposes in Russia and the United States.
The most recent books by Ivan Kurilla are:
Distant Friends and Intimate Enemies: History of U.S. – Russian Relations, coauthored with David S. Foglesong (Rutgers) and Victoria I. Zhuravleva (RSUH), forthcoming at Cambridge University Press in 2025.
(edited in English): Ivan Kurilla (ed.) Carl W. Ackerman, Trailing the Bolsheviki: Twelve Thousand Miles with the Allies in Siberia (Slavica, 2020); Kurilla, Ivan and Zhuravleva Victoria I. (eds.). Russian/Soviet Studies in the United States, Amerikanistika in Russia: Mutual Representations in Academic Projects. (Lexington, 2016).
(in Russian): Kurilla, Ivan. Amerikantsy i vse ostalnye: Istoki i smysl vneshney politiki SShA (Americans and all the rest: Origin and meaning of the U.S. foreign policy) (Alpina, 2024); Kurilla, Ivan. Bitva za proshloe: Kak politika menyaet istoriyu (Battle for the Past: How Politics Changes History), (Alpina, 2022).
Sponsored by: REES Program, Department of History, Swem Library, Whole of Government Center of Excellence & Reves Center for International Studies