Wednesday, October 22
12:00 - 1:00 PM
ICC 450
About the Lecture:
The 2022 unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine evoked nearly universal international condemnation but got much less unanimous response in more practical terms of political, economic and other sanctions. Many countries, especially in the so-called “Global South” refused to introduce any measures against the aggressor state for various reasons and under different pretexts. Culture appeared to be the most controversial field, where even Western democracies, rather unanimous in their response to the Russian assault, failed to achieve any consensus on suitable measures and policies vis-à-vis the rogue state. While virtually nobody questions the need for sanctions against the specific persons and institutions that support the war, the wholesale rejection of Russian culture and canceling of its iconic figures is often vehemently denied. Mykola Riabchuk, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies in Kyiv and a visiting lecturer at the University Warsaw, delves into the essence of these debates, trying to represent different rationales and opposite arguments but also to answer a more fundamental question: to what degree and in which way a seemingly innocent, apolitical cultural “soft power” contributes to the militant “hard power” of the aggressor state during the war?
About the Speaker:
Mykola Riabchuk is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies in Kyiv and a visiting lecturer at the University Warsaw. He penned dozen books translated into Polish, French, German, Serbian and Hungarian, and was distinguished with several awards, most notably the Antonovych Prize (2003), the “Bene merito” medal of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009), Jerzy Giedroyc Prize (2023), the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2025), and the Taras Shevchenko National Prize in Arts and Literature (2022). In 2014-2018, he headed the Ukrainian PEN Center and, in 2014-2023, chaired the jury of the “Angelus” international literary award. His latest books (in English) are Eastern Europe since 1989: Between the Loosened Authoritarianism and Unconsolidated Democracy (Warsaw, 2020), and At the Fence of Metternich’s Garden. Essays on Europe, Ukraine, and Europeanization (Stuttgart, 2021).
This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown's Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) and the Department of Slavic Languages.
