Remembering the Decembrists at 200: New Research and Reflections

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

2025 marks two hundred years since the Decembrist Revolt. Historically, this complex event has been subjected to a range of ideological and critical interpretations. How should we understand the Decembrists and their worldview now, at the bicentennial? The interdisciplinary group of scholars on this panel seek to provide new approaches to this question. The papers consider the Decembrists in life and literature from a number of angles, including emotion and affect theory, early-nineteenth-century perceptions of historical temporality, and the notion of civic sentimentalism.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Alina Mezenova, U of Notre Dame

Papers

• Griboedov’s Comedy of Affect: Chaadaev, Chatskii, and the Decembrists - Ingrid Kleespies, U of Florida

• Becoming Decembrists: Temporality and Its Discontents - Anna Nath, Rutgers, The State U of New Jersey

• Pushkin, Radishchev, and the Legacy of Civic Sentimentalism - Emily Wang, U of Notre Dame

Discussant

• Stanislav Tarasov, Independent Scholar