webinar register page

Area Studies Showcase Lecture Series: Faith Hillis, "Utopia's Discontents: Russian Émigrés and the Quest for Freedom"

In the last fifty years of the tsarist regime, large and boisterous settlements of Russian exiles emerged across the European continent. Called “Russian colonies” by their residents, these communities hosted the leaders of virtually every revolutionary party and produced most of the illegal literature that circulated in late imperial Russia. Safe havens for radical activity, the colonies were also revolutionary experiments in their own right, providing residents an opportunity to translate their utopian dreams of liberty, fraternity, and equality into reality through their quotidian activities. The first comprehensive account of the Russian revolutionary movement abroad, this project traces how the aspirations born of the colonies, as well as the explosive discontents they produced, reimagined radical culture and ideas. In the process, it provides a novel reassessment of the Russian revolution and of Russia’s relations with its European neighbors.

Dec 3, 2020 01:00 PM in Central Time (US and Canada)