International conference Necropolis of Communist Terror: Locating and researching burial sites, the language and form of memorials
9.-10. February 2023, Estonian Film Museum (Pirita tee 56, 12011 Tallinn)
Organisers: The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (Tallinn, Estonia) and Memorial Research and Information Centre/Joffe Foundation (St. Petersburg, Russia)
We kindly invite you to participate in the 2nd international conference on necropolistics. The first Necropolis of Communist Terror conference took place in 2019 in Tallinn, when the focus was on locating and preserving the mass graves of victims of state terror.
The upcoming conference will analyse the treatment of the terror experience of political regimes and its commemoration in different countries. The conference offers international exchange of expertise in research and commemoration, as well as preparation for creating new standards in the area of necropolis of terror.
The conference programme includes the following themed panels:
- The examination of 20th century humanitarian catastrophies and communist state terror. Memory, trauma, and historical memory.
- Contemporary memory wars and commemoration. Remembrance, responsibility and future. The emotionality and aesthetics of commemoration: commemoration practices, language and form.
- Expertise on the situation of memorial sites of terror in various countries. Overview of regional best practices regarding locating, investigating, memorialising and legally establishing burial sites of executed victims. Treatment of the terror experience of political regimes and its commemoration in different countries.
- Searching for the remains of terror victims and issues of identification.
The working languages of the conference are Estonian, English and Russian (with simultaneous interpretation).
Please notify us of your attendance via email (rsvp@mnemosyne.ee). Participation is free of charge.
Programme
Thursday, 9 February
| 09:00 | Registration |
| 09:15 | Opening address by Urmas Reinsalu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, and Meelis Maripuu, Board Member of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory |
| 09:30 | Keynote speech by Edward Lucas (United Kingdom) |
| 10:15-13:00 | First panel discussion: 21st century challenges concerning memory, trauma and history. Session led by prof. Lauri Mälksoo (University of Tartu); joining the discussion: Edward Lucas (United Kingdom). |
| Dr. prof. Nanci Adler (Netherlands). 21st Century Challenges of Post-Soviet Russia: A Pathology of de-Stalinization | |
| Yevgeniy Zakharov (Ukraine). With open eyes: Reflections on historical memory | |
| Dr. Anna Kaminsky (Germany) | |
| 13:00-14.15 | Tour of Estonia’s Victims of Communism Memorial |
| 14:15-15:00 | Lunch |
| 15:00-18:00 | Second panel discussion. The emotionality and aesthetics of commemoration: commemoration practices, language and form. Moderator Dr. Anna Kaminsky (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung / The Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany) |
| Martin Andreller (Estonia). Commemoration of communism victims in Estonia | |
| Irina Flige (Russia). Memorialisation of sites of mass executions | |
| Marek Mutor (Poland) and Tszwai So (United Kingdom). Project of Pan-European Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism in Brussels | |
| Edgar Brutyan (Georgia). How Victims of the Soviet Terror are Commemorated in Georgia | |
| Arnis Āboltiņš (Latvia). The demontage of Soviet monuments in Latvia on basis of the Latvian legislation from 24.02.2022. |
Friday, 10 February
| 09:00-12:45 | Third panel discussion: Presentations and general overviews on the situation of memorial sites of terror in various countries. Session led by Dmitriy Pritykin (Memorial) |
| Prof. Vera Carnovale (Argentina). Illegal repression in Argentina (1976-1983). Places and practices of Memory | |
| Peter Rendek (Czechia). Overview of the practices regarding locating, investigating, memorialising and legally establishing burial sites of executed victims and commemoration practices in Czechia | |
| Prof. Daniel Șandru (Romania). Current situation of the future Ramnicu Sarat Prison Memorial | |
| Dr. Jonila Godole (Albania). Memory Places and Public Memory in Post-Communist Albania | |
| Dr. Blanka Matković (Croatia). Croatia at the crossroads between the new democracy and the communist past: the challenges in locating, investigating and memorialising the burial sites | |
| Dr. Julia Landau (Germany). Practices regarding locating, investigating and memorialising burial sites of terror in Germany: The contested history of Soviet Special Camps in Eastern Germany (1945-1950) | |
| 12:45-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-17:00 | Fourth panel discussion. Searching for the remains terror victims, issues of identification. Moderator Dr. Meelis Saueauk (Estonian Institute of Historical Memory) |
| Anton Vatcharadze (Georgia). Study of mass graves of the repressed in Georgia in 2017-2022 | |
| Stefan Bosomitu (Romania). Special archaeological investigations undertook along the Danube-Black Sea Canal regarding the remains of the former work camps that had functioned there during the communist regime in Romania | |
| Dr. Raili Allmäe, Arnold Unt (Estonia). Multidisciplinary research on Estonian Red Terror victims | |
| Rafał Michliński (Poland). Searching for the victims of totalitarisms: archival query as a basis for archeological investigation on example of Vilniaus Kalvarijų’s case– characteristics and challenges. | |
| Dr. Magdalena Krajewska (Poland). The process of identifying the victims of totalitarian regimes in the research of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland. CODIS (The Combined DNA Index System) system support | |
| Rimantas Zagreckas (Lithuania). The discovery of the remains of a Southern Lithuanian partisan leader Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis | |
| 17:00-17:30 | Summary of the conference, closing remarks |
This preliminary programme is subject to change.
