From Biographical Memory to Professional Expertise: Personal Experience and the Study of Communism

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel consists of four presentations, each exploring the relationship between academic analysis and personal experience in the study of communism. Examining how biographies shaped debates about the Soviet Union, the panelists delve into issues of academic objectivity, ideological shifts, and historical memory.
Oleksandr Avramchuk investigates the impact of Ukrainian exile intellectuals on early research into the Great Famine, also known as the Holodomor. He illustrates how recollections of Stalinist repression influenced perceptions of collectivization and the history of the famine, highlighting the interplay between eyewitness testimonies and academic inquiry.
Jędrzej Piekara traces the intellectual paths of Soviet writers and thinkers – including Platonov, Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, and Heller – who, despite differing political backgrounds, came to question the Soviet system. His exploration of evolution from internal critics to „the doubters” underscores tension between intellectual skepticism and ideological conformity.
Andrzej Czyżewski examines the ways in which active opposition to the communist regime may have influenced Jakub Karpiński's scholarly work on the Eastern Bloc. Czyżewski discusses the benefits and limitations of political engagement in academic research, with a focus on Western Sovietology during the Cold War.
Katarzyna Kwiatkowska-Moskalewicz studies Włodzimierz Brus’s wartime experiences and their impact on his scholarly work regarding the Soviet Union. By comparing his intellectual trajectory with that of Richard Pipes, she demonstrates how personal circumstances led to contrasting interpretations of Soviet reality.
Together, the papers offer an insight into the relationship between personal experience and academic analysis and shed light on how researchers have historically navigated the challenges of studying communism.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Natalia Aleksiun, U of Florida

Papers

• Analyzing the Soviet Society by Those Who Doubt in It: Platonov, Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, and Mikhail Heller - Jedrzej Piekara, Inst of Central Europe (Poland)

• Witnesses to Researchers: The Holodomor in Ukrainian Exile Sovietology, 1945–1991 - Oleksandr Avramchuk, Inst of Central Europe (Poland)

• From Wartime Diary to Academic Writing: The USSR as Perceived by Włodzimierz Brus - Katarzyna Kwiatkowska-Moskalewicz, Inst of Political Science PAS (Poland)

• When an Anti-communist Analyses Communism: The Case of Jakub Karpiński (1940-2003) - Andrzej Czyżewski, Inst of Political Studies PAS (Poland)

Discussant

• Natalia Aleksiun, U of Florida