Multiethnic Russia and the Soviet Union: How to diversify and decolonise your curriculum

10.00

Welcome and introduction

10.15

Session 1: Tsarist Imperial Society and Ethnicity (Shane O’Rourke, University of York)

A specialist in late-Imperial Russian society and ethnicities, including the Cossacks, Dr O’Rourke will explore society under the last three Tsars, examining Russification in the western Russian borderlands, Russian settler colonialism, the Caucasus and deportation, and current historiographical trends.

11.15

Session 2: Soviet Society and Ethnicity (Dr Robert Dale, Newcastle University)

A specialist in Soviet social and cultural history, Dr Dale will focus on the era of Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev, considering changing nationalities policies, Soviet settler colonialism, ethnic deportations and terror under Stalin, language and culture policies, and current historiographical trends.

12.15

Session 3: Approaching the Diversity of GULAG Camp Life and Society (Dr Mark Vincent)

Dr. Vincent, a specialist in the Gulag prison system and Soviet penality, and recently qualified history teacher, will present an approach to examining Soviet prison camps as melting pots of diverse ethnic, cultural, and social groups in the USSR, combining contemporary artwork from inside the camps with current scholarship on the camps' people and peoples.

12.45

Lunch

13.15

Session 4: Gender and Ethnicity in Central Asia (Dr Beatrice Penati, Liverpool University)

A specialist in Central Asia under Russian and Soviet rule, Dr Penati will examine how pre- and post-revolutionary ethnic policies, state-led modernisation, biopolitics and the emancipation of women, and war mobilisation shaped former Tsarist colonies. Together with current historiographical trends, she will present a range of sources for teaching, including audiovisual.

14.15

Session 5: Jewish History in Russia and the USSR – Approaches for Teachers (Dr Alistair Dickins, Cheadle Hulme High School and Sixth Form)

An experienced teacher with a PhD in Russian and Soviet History, and writer of the Istorik teaching blog, Dr Dickins will showcase and model approaches to teaching Jewish History in a Russian and Soviet context, including Jewish social and cultural life in late-Imperial and Soviet Russia, Jewish national politics under Soviet rule, pogroms, and the experience of the Holocaust in the USSR.

15.00

Closing comments and thanks