Narratives of Trial and Imprisonment in Russian and Soviet Culture from the 1920s to the 2020s

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel compares narratives of criminal and political trials and imprisonment in the 20th and 21st centuries and across book publishing and journalism, museums, and art and literature. Papers focus on the ethical dilemmas, complexity of genre(s) and multiple forms of reader/viewer address embedded in these narratives. Case studies include the post-Stalinist debate on family law as the incubator of a new vision of Soviet legal journalism; the museumification of political prisoner artefacts in early Soviet culture and the Putin era; and the multiple uses of the ‘last word’ in Russian political prisoner trials and activism of the 21st century.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Claire Whitehead, U of St. Andrews (UK)

Papers

• Poor Relics: Political Imprisonment on Display - Anastasiya Osipova, U of Colorado at Boulder

• Emotional Judgment: Love and Law in Soviet Journalism after Stalin - Rebecca Reich, U of Cambridge (UK)

• ‘The Last Free Tribune’: Performance and Anthologization of the ‘Last Words’ of Political Prisoners of the Putin Era - Polly Jones, U of Oxford (UK)

Discussant

• Anna Schur, Keene State College