Lecture 'Histor(iograph)y: an ideological-identitarian frontline? Gulag commemoration and nation-building in Kazakhstan'
- For whom
- Alumni , Press , Employees , Private individuals , Students
- When
- 07-05-2024 from 18:00 to 20:00
- Where
- Auditorium G, Campus Ufo, Technicum, T2, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Gent
- Language
- English
- Organizer
- Viae Caspiae
- Contact
- eureast@ugent.be
Aimar Ventsel and Bruno De Cordier will examine how present-day Kazakhstan tries to accommodate the Gulag episode.
Although the Soviet Union’s Gulag system is popularly mostly associated with Siberia, some of its major branches, like Karlag and Steplag, were situated and operating (1930-1959) in what is now Kazakhstan.
In this talk, Aimar Ventsel and Bruno De Cordier will examine how present-day Kazakhstan tries to accommodate the Gulag episode and its societal legacies into its state-nation building and commemoration policies. The speakers will discuss the setup of Gulag commemoration sites at Malinovka (Aqmol), Dolinka and Spassk as well as para-governmental public awareness initiatives on the issue, and how commemoration policies aim at defining the role and position of the Kazakh self-group in a tragic historical episode that occurred on Kazakh ancestral land, largely affected non-Kazakh populations yet also had a deep impact on the societal and demographic texture of Kazakhstan.
About the speakers
- Aimar Ventsel is at the Department of Ethnology of the University of Tartu.
- Bruno De Cordier is at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies of Ghent University.