Conference “Diversity of Thinking in the USSR and Russia (1945-2008)”

European University at St Petersburg in collaboration with Likhachev Foundation, Centre for Independent Social Research, and “Memorial” are organizing an academic conference “Diversity of Thinking in the USSR and Russia (1945-2008)”, taking place at the European University at St.Petersburg, St.Petersburg on 15-16 May 2009.

The conference continues debating on the phenomenon of diversity of thinking, stimulated by the monograph of B.Firsov “Diversity of Thinking in the USSR 1940-1060s. History, theory and practices”. St.Petersburg, 2008. The author makes an attempt to demonstrate that the Soviet people sought for and managed to find ways of keeping their identities by resisting forced immersion into the stifling atmosphere of imposed unanimity not only during Khrushchev’s “global warming”, but also during the “permafrost” that characterized the last years of Stalin’s reign. The organizers pretends that discussion on the issues raised in the book will grow up academic and public interest to the analysis of the reasons of collapse of the Soviet system, and will allow defining a role of diversity of thinking in the development of contemporary Russian society.