Vergangene Veranstaltungen

16.4.2026 | Vortrag "From Russia with Love: Transnational Corruption and Sanctions Bypass in the Ukraine War" – Aljona Wandyschewa

Donnerstag, 16.4.2026, 13.30-15.30, Raum A.227 | Четверг, 16 апреля 2026 г., аудитория А.227 | Thursday, 26 Apr 2026, 1.30-3.30 pm, room A.227
Vortrag im Rahmen des Seminars Umkämpftes Gedächtnis | Erinnerung konfrontieren / Contested Memory | Confronting Memories
Working language: English. Q&A: English/Russian. The speaker will join online, while the discussion will take place in a hybrid format with participants attending both in person and online.
The war in Ukraine takes countless lives, yet it also opens new opportunities for those who exploit conflict for profit. In Russia, the full-scale invasion combined with entrenched state capture has created ideal conditions for reallocating resources to regime loyalists. This process strengthens corruption networks at both federal and regional levels, fuels more sophisticated money-laundering and sanctions-evasion schemes, and enables authoritarian actors to export these practices worldwide. The global spread of such corrupt tools illustrates the logic of authoritarian learning.
To effectively counter these illegal practices, researchers, civil society, and policymakers must rely on data from investigative journalism and academic research. This seminar will explore the following issues:
• How Putin’s elite enriches itself through the war in Ukraine • Shifts in corruption levels in Russia since the invasion • How sanctions-evading global networks operate (with a focus on the Garantex case) • The new face of Russian money laundering and sanctions evasion • Links between the nationalization process and corruption • The role of civil society in countering corruption despite mounting risks.
This upcoming seminar is part of the research activities of the MALVA Center for the Study of War, Language, and Memory

26.3.2026 | Vortrag "Imagined Futures of Russia among Post-2022 Russian Migrants" – Tomasz Rawski

Donnerstag, 26.3.2026, 13.30-15.30, Raum A.227 | Четверг, 26 марта 2026 г., аудитория А.227 | Thursday, 26 Mar 2026, 1.30-3.30 pm, room A.227

Vortrag im Rahmen des Seminars Umkämpftes Gedächtnis | Erinnerung konfrontieren / Contested Memory | Confronting Memories

Working language: English. Q&A: English/Russian. The speaker will join online, while the discussion will take place in a hybrid format with participants attending both in person and online.
This presentation focuses on imagined futures of Russia among post-2022 Russian migrants, i.e. people who left their country after the outbreak of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It presents the typology which covers a continuum of different scenarios considered realistic by the respondents: from very optimistic visions of the imminent end of Vladimir Putin and the rapid democratization of the country, to ambivalent visions of the territorial disintegration of the Russian Federation, to more pessimistic visions of the slow and socially painful slide of the current authoritarian regime into totalitarianism.
The presentation is based on 99 interviews conducted in nine countries. It sheds light on the hitherto heavily under-researched perspective of post-2022 Russian migrants, the vast majority of whom have openly declared their anti-Putinist position.
This upcoming seminar is part of the research activities of the MALVA Center for the Study of War, Language, and Memory

19.2.2026 | Vortrag "Aufstieg und Fall des Paragraphen 22.2" – Oleg Reut (Vortrag auf Russisch)

Donnerstag, 19.2.2026, 13.30-15.30, Raum A.227 | Четверг, 19 февраля 2026 г., аудитория А.227

Vortrag im Rahmen des Seminars Umkämpftes Gedächtnis | Erinnerung konfrontieren / Contested Memory | Confronting Memories

Рабочий язык: русский. Докладчик выступит очно. Будет возможность присоединиться по Zoom. Ведущий: Арсений Куманьков
Взлёт и падение § 22.2
На основе описательного портрета россиян-обладателей гуманитарных виз Германии по параграфу 22.2 (AufenthG – Закона о пребывании иностранцев) выявляются паттерны адаптации и интеграции в стране приёма, а также анализируется уровень коммеморативных (и более широко – общественно-политических) активностей как в Германии, так и направленных на Россию и россиян. Они не являются заданными или статичными, а практически полностью зависят от динамики российско-украинской войны и ставшего резким изменения политики приёма мигрантов в Германии.

9.2.2026 | Vortrag "History Makers – The Construction of Aggressor Images in (Digital) Historical Propaganda in Putin-Era Russia" – Daniel Weinmann (Universität Heidelberg)

Montag, 9. Februar 2026, 16.50-18.20, Raum N.316 | Monday, 9 Feb 2026, 4.50-6.20 pm, room N.316

Daniel Weinmann

Vortrag auf Englisch

Link zur Online-Teilnahme

This PhD project investigates how officially sanctioned historical narratives are utilised in present-day Russia under Vladimir Putin to construct and stage hostility. The primary object of analysis is the “Russian Military Historical Society“ (RVIO), a Government-Organized Non-Governmental Organization (GONGO) that effectively simulates civil society while executing state memory politics. By combining historical inquiry with memory theory and media analysis, the project examines the “staging of enmity” across two levels: the institutional rise of the RVIO, and the analysis of digital propaganda. Case studies focus on YouTube series about “The Wild 90s” and the RVIO-journal “Ideology of the Future”. These sources reveal how the “Wild 90s” and the “Great Patriotic War” are reshaped to legitimise Russia’s war against Ukraine, producing and staging an “Ambivalent Enmity“ – characterised by simultaneous contradictions, such as framing Ukraine as both a “brother nation” and a “Nazi state.” The project thus contributes to understanding the performative dimensions of Russian authoritarianism in digital spaces and the development of its historical narratives.

Daniel Weinmann is a Research Associate and PhD candidate in the project “The Aggressor“ at Heidelberg University. He earned his B.Ed. and M.Ed. from the University of Tübingen in 2023 with a thesis on Vladimir Medinskij’s “histotainment” on YouTube. His research explores politics of history and remembrance cultures, historical propaganda, and the contemporary history of Russia and Ukraine, including Putinism and the transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries.

5.-7. Februar 2026 | Escaped Memory: Transmitting Narratives, Images and Technologies – International Conference

Escaped Memory: Transmitting Narratives, Images and Technologies – International Conference

5-7 February, 2026, Johannes Gutenberg University, Germersheim Campus

Conference programme

War not only kills; it also displaces—and, in doing so, reshapes how uprooted societies and individuals engage in mnemonic practices. Since February 2022, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has generated new waves of Russian and Ukrainian emigration, dispersing people across Europe and beyond. In such a context, memory has functioned as a shared language, bringing together actors from diverse social, cultural, and political backgrounds. Remembrance practices have become a central arena for meaning-making, community-building, grief, protest, and political positioning.

Weiterlesen "5.-7. Februar 2026 | Escaped Memory: Transmitting Narratives, Images and Technologies – International Conference"

3.2.2026 | Vortrag "’Oioioi, die Russen kommen’ – Postsowjetische Populäre Musik in Deutschland": David-Emil Wickström (Popakademie Mannheim)

Dienstag, 3.2.26, 9.40-11.10 Uhr, Raum N.308

Prof. Dr. David-Emil Wickström von der Popakademie Mannheim wird mit vielen Musikbeispielen über postsowjetische Popmusik in Deutschland berichten.

Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen der Vorlesungsreihe "Transkulturalität und Transnationalität" statt.

Die Veranstaltung ist offen für alle, Russischkenntnisse sind NICHT erforderlich.

Oioioi, die Russen kommen’ – Postsowjetische Populäre Musik in Deutschland

Als die Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung 1997 sang: „Oioioi, die Russen kommen! Nastrowje, und schon sind sie da!", war „die Russen" ein populärer Sammelbegriff für Menschen, die verstärkt nach der deutschen Wiedervereinigung aus dem Gebiet der ehemaligen Sowjetunion nach Deutschland und Österreich migrierten. Die erste Liedzeile „Igor kam aus Kasachstan mit Transsibirski Eisenbahn" verweist dabei bereits ironisch auf die Heterogenität dieser Migrationsbewegungen, die im öffentlichen Diskurs jedoch weitgehend nivelliert wurde. Weiterlesen "3.2.2026 | Vortrag "’Oioioi, die Russen kommen’ – Postsowjetische Populäre Musik in Deutschland": David-Emil Wickström (Popakademie Mannheim)"

29.01.2026 | Ausstellung "Menschen im Krieg: Fotoreportagen von Victoria Ivleva" – Eröffnungsveranstaltung

Eröffnung der Ausstellung: Donnerstag, 29.01.2026, 18:30 Uhr, FTSK Neubau, 2. OG

Eine russische Journalistin im ukrainischen Krieg

Die russische Fotografin und Journalistin Victoria Ivleva wurde für ihre Aufnahmen aus dem havarierten Atomreaktor Tschernobyl mit dem World Press Photo Award ausgezeichnet. In Moskau hatte sich die 66 Jahre alte Ivleva für ukrainische politische Häftlinge in russischen Gefängnissen eingesetzt. Gleich nach Kriegsbeginn ist Ivleva nach Kiew umgezogen. Von dort berichtet sie über ihre Arbeit bei der Hilfe von Menschen und beim Dokumentieren von Massengräbern.

Der Vortrag wird von den Studierenden aus dem Russischen ins Deutsche gedolmescht.

26.01.2026 | Vortrag "Ageing after Deportations in the Soviet Union"

Montag, 26. Januar 2026, 16.50-18.20, Raum N.316 | Monday, 26 Jan 2026, 4.50-6.20 pm, room N.316

Botakoz Kassymbekova

Prof. Dr. Botakoz Kassymbekova, University of Zurich

Vortrag auf Englisch

Link zur Online-Teilnahme

What did it mean to age after Soviet national deportations? This talk investigates how survivors processed deportation experiences in later life, and how deportation traPof. Dr. Kassymbekova Jan 26 uma continued to influence family relations, intergenerational narratives, and everyday wellbeing.

Prof. Dr. Kassymbekova studies colonialism, imperialism and dictatorships, exploring these as systems of power structure and as lived experience.  Her first book, entitled Despite Cultures. Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan (Pittsburgh University Press, 2016) examines Soviet colonial strategies in Central Asia and analyses how Moscow communicated and enforced rule across large distances, with a particular focus on how Soviet officials in the colonized peripheries (mis)understood the system they were building. Her research interests include Soviet colonial photography, comparative analysis of "merit" under capitalism, communism and colonial systems, Russian colonialism in comparative perspective, the history of childhood and ageing, post-Stalinism, urban and food history.
She is currently working on a manuscript that investigates how older people aged after Stalinism in the Soviet Union. Another book project titled “Imperial Innocence” (under contract with the Cambridge University Press, Elements Series) is a cultural history of Soviet imperialism in co-authorship with Yevhenii Monastyrskyi (Harvard University).
Prof. Kassymekova conceptualized and co-convened online exhibition Soviet Central Asia in 100 Objects together with professor Alexander Morrison (Oxford) and Edmund Herzig (Oxford)  at the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre in 2021. She co-founded the RUTA Association, based in Ukraine.
Kassymbekova holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from Humboldt University in Berlin; an M.A. from Social and Cultural History from the University of Essex; and a B.A. from the American University – Central Asia with a Major in Comparative Political Science and a Minor in Sociology and Social Anthropology. She held postdoctoral positions at the Technical University Berlin and the Liverpool John Moores University. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the Harriman Institute at the Columbia University and at the Center for Advanced Studies LMU (CAS LMU) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.

26.01.2026 | Vortrag „Translating for Change: Women Translators and the Politics of Anonymity. The Women’s Publishing Cooperative in St. Petersburg, 1863–1879“

Masha Bratishcheva

Montag, 26. Januar 2026, 11.20-12.50, Raum N.307

Dr. Masha Bratishcheva (Universität Bielefeld)

Link zur Online-Teilnahme

In nineteenth-century Russia, translation served as one of the few pathways through which women could participate in intellectual and professional life. Yet women translators remained largely invisible—unnamed on title pages, excluded from historical records, and unrecognized in the public sphere. This lecture examines how Russian women translators organized collectively to transform their anonymous labour into a visible force for social change. Weiterlesen "26.01.2026 | Vortrag „Translating for Change: Women Translators and the Politics of Anonymity. The Women’s Publishing Cooperative in St. Petersburg, 1863–1879“"