Russia and its Neighbours. Problems and Challenges

The international interdisciplinary PhD student conference Russia and its Neighbours. Problems and Challenges will take place on June 3rd and 4th 2013 in the Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University (UJ), Kraków. The conference is organised by Russian Studies Students' Scientific Circle, UJ, in cooperation with Krakow Eastern Research Foundation, Eastern Circle, UJ, and the Institute of Eastern Initiatives.

Russian Federation’s “near abroad” has seen several important events in recent years. Starting with the first democratic and bloodless transfer of power to take place in the post-Soviet sphere, which occurred in Georgia, events such as Ukrainian general elections, presidential elections in Armenia, visit of Patriarch Cyril I in Poland, appointment of a new prime minister of the People’s Republic of China, or the waves of protest in Azerbaijan and economic crisis in Belarus have all sparked great interest in the region. They have also been of great influence on the shaping of relations between the countries involved and Russian Federation.

Moreover, 2013 will bring about many cultural events, such as the opening of the Gogol Centre in Moscow, celebration of the 310th anniversary of the foundation of St Petersburg, 1025th anniversary of the Christianisation of Kievan Rus’, or the 95th birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The above examples may become an interesting starting point for discussion about the interactions of Russia and it’s “near abroad” in both socio-political, culturological and literary studies’ context. We would like to cordially invite scholars from Poland and abroad to present their research results.

Principal fields of interest of the conference:

Russian foreign policy and internal security

Economy: a re-conquest or continuing emancipation of post-Soviet sphere of influence?

Revolutions in countries neighbouring Russia after 1991

Russian neighbours as represented in Russian literature/cinema/theatre and Russia as represented in theirs

Influence of Soviet and contemporary Russian culture upon the culture of Russian neighbours: diffusion or rejection

Russia and neighbours: a field of impact. Religion, culture, language

Conference languages:

Polish, Russian and English. In special cases we will accept papers in Belarussian and Ukrainian, however applications and abstracts will be accepted only in Polish, Russian or English.

Please, send your applications to the e-mail address: rosja.sasiedzi@gmail.com until April 30th 2013. The results will be published by May 8th 2013 and sent to all parties. Please send your applications on a special form, available here:

Application form

The number of entrants is limited. The organisers reserve the right to select the best papers and to reject applications which don’t match the conference’s theme or criteria of a scientific paper. A post-conference publication of the papers delivered at the conference is planned

The conference fee is 50 PLN, including conference materials, two dinners and snacks between the conference panels.

The organisers offer their help in the search of accommodation to all the conference participants from outside Kraków. All foreign participants will be provided with official invitations if necessary.

For more information visit: http://www.rosja2013.blogspot.com/p/about-conferency.html