Rethinking Russia through Decolonisation: Ideas, Actors, and Political Projects

What does decolonisation mean in and around Russia today, and who are the actors seeking to define and advance it? How is the language of decolonisation itself appropriated by Russia’s illiberal regime? The roundtable discusses diverse visions of decolonisation in and around Russia, as well as among its diasporas and minorities. Rather than treating decolonisation as a predetermined political project, a normative claim, or primarily a security issue for Russia’s neighbours, the roundtable approaches it as a field of competing interpretations and political projects. It examines the perspectives of Russian and Belarusian exiles, Tatar intellectuals, Indigenous groups from Russia’s Far North, and other minority movements, while also considering mainstream Russian ideologues who recycle anti-colonial and anti-racist concepts and blend them within a conservative ideology.

The roundtable is open to the public; coffee and cakes will be served after the event.

Participants

Mikhail Suslov, University of Copenhagen

Intellectual tradition of authoritarian anti-colonialism in Russia.

Dmitry Dubrovskiy, Charles University, Prague

Who Has the Authority to Decolonise Russia? Empire, Epistemic Authority, and Debates within the Russian Opposition.

Kara Kathleen Hodgson, University of Oslo

Evolution of decolonial thought and movements for Indigenous groups at the ‘Extreme North’.

Renat Bekkin, University of Helsinki

“Tatar red rebels! You have served the Russian people greatly by drowning the national movements of your brothers in blood’ (leaflet by Haris Batyrshin and anti-colonialist discourse in Tatarstan in the 1920s).

Anton Saifullayeu, University of Warsaw

Is Belarusian Political Emigration Becoming a Decolonised Community? Social and Institutional Perspectives.

Nikolay Zakharov, Södertörn University

The Evolution of State Anti-Racism: Ideology, Instrumentalisation, and Prospects.