Immediately following the hijacking of the Ryanair flight and abduction of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega on 23 May, IWM hosted a discussion posing the question of что делать? (What is to be done?) from the perspective of European Union states: The Hijack. Europe, Belarus, and the Abduction of Roman Protasevich.
The following two discussions (the first in German, the second in English) shifted the focus from the European Union to the former Soviet space in an attempt to better understand what is happening inside Belarus itself. In what way is the currently showcased performative-confession-extracted-through-torture reminiscent of Stalinist times, and in what way is there something post-modern about it? What is the relationship between insecurities about masculinity and state terror? How does a “revolution with a woman’s face” open new possibilities for politics, for rebellion against tyranny?
For more information see our Chronicle from Belarus, an online archive exploring recent events in Belarus.
Speakers:
Maryia Rohava – Doctoral Research Fellow in East European and Russian Area Studies at the University of Oslo.
Alex Kazharski – Researcher, Charles University (Prague).
Radosław Sikorski – MEP, Chairman of the EU-USA Delegation at European Parliament, Former Foreign Minister of Poland.
Nataliya Gumenyuk – Ukrainian author and journalist specializing in foreign affairs and conflict reporting; Founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab.
Hanna Komar – poet, writer and translator, human rights activist.
The discussion was moderated by Timothy Snyder, IWM Permanent Fellow.
Introduction by Marci Shore, Associate Professor of Intellectual History at Yale University and IWM Visiting Fellow.
