Applications open for the Anatoly Marchenko Conference

Anatoly Marchenko is a world-famous Soviet dissident, political prisoner, who died in 1986 in Chistopol prison after a long hunger strike; the first winner of the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament (awarded posthumously in 1988); a man who became an example of honesty and courage for many; the author of the famous autobiographical books “My Testimony”, “From Tarusa to Chuna”, “To live like Everyone”, in which he left a frank and accurate testimony, a description of what he saw and lived in prisons and camps and on the outside.

Paradoxically, while Marchenko's crucial role is universally recognized, his biography and works are still poorly studied. He has received insufficient attention from historians, philologists, literary critics and scholars working in other fields of the humanities.

The first conference dedicated to Anatoly Marchenko has two main goals. The first is to bring together researchers who deal with Marchenko's legacy, his role in the history and literature of the 20th century, to understand the current state in different academic fields, to discuss existing and potential areas of research. The second goal is to draw attention to Marchenko's figure to attract new specialists and the wider public, to actualize his legacy in the contemporary context. The conference is set to happen on November 3-5, 2025.

Possible topics:

• Marchenko's biography: work with archival and published sources;
• Marchenko's texts as documentary evidence in the context of Russian literature;
• translations of Marchenko's works and their reception in the West;
• Marchenko and the dissident movement in the USSR;
• Marchenko's testimonial experience and issues of modern human rights activism.

Working languages - English, Russian, Italian.

We invite those interested to submit applications for papers (20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion). Applications should contain the name and affiliation of the speaker, brief information about the speaker (no more than 150 words) and an abstract (no more than 350 words) in Russian or English. The deadline is May 31. 

Read further here.