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Stories and ideas

The museum of gifts for Stalin’s 70th birthday

The Russian-Italian sculptor Jurij Tilman shares his memories of a exhibition he visited as a child and discusses the surprising effect the experience had on his work.

October 1, 2024 - Aleksej Tilman Jurij Tilman

The power of the Baltic Way

August 23rd saw the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way which started in 1989. It became the symbol of hope and change for the citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as they united, hand-in-hand, forming a human chain of two million citizens, from Tallinn to Vilnius.

September 27, 2024 - Iris Kempe

“You can live with a scar.” Civic resilience in Eastern Europe amid war and repression

Civil society activists and journalists in the region are showing courage and resolve, adapting and withstanding amid war and repression. Though groups have been forced to disband, many re-emerge with new formats, ideas and alliances.

September 25, 2024 - Barbara von Ow-Freytag

The Lithuanian Song Festival: 100 years of tradition

Lithuania’s song festival, Dainų šventė, celebrated its 100th anniversary in July this year. It stands as Lithuania’s paramount cultural phenomenon, involving tens of thousands of Lithuanians and several diaspora choirs from around the world. Yet despite sharing similar festivals, the presence of choirs from the other Baltic countries is a rare sight to see.

An old woman blows kisses at the procession from her flat window. She is dressed in national costume and an array of amber beads. Among the crowds lining the streets, other elderly ladies in similar dress sit on benches, too frail to march the three kilometres from Vilnius’s Cathedral Square to Vingis Park, the festival grounds, but keen to be part of the Lithuanian Song Festival parade.

September 16, 2024 - Ottilie Tabberer

A legend of the Soviet underground rock scene continues to play

Boris Grebenshchikov’s charisma and role in Soviet underground music were recognized worldwide. He was known for his distance from the Soviet reality. When asked today, Grebenshchikov, known as BG, claims that the popularity of his band, the famous Aquarium, came from the fact that it operated outside the established norms and challenged imposed standards.

“Russia is a terrorist state” is a popular slogan which we often see on social media and hear in public discourse. Understandably, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, almost everything related to Russia has become political and generates negative emotions. Many commentaries and analyses point to the differences between the political culture in the West and the dictatorial models which have developed in the East. Putin’s Russia, now deemed neo-totalitarian, is a key example of this second model.

September 16, 2024 - Elżbieta Żak

A bottom-up approach to the history of the region

An interview with Jacob Mikanowski, author of Goodbye Eastern Europe. An intimate history of a divided land. Interviewers: Adam Reichardt and Nina Pániková

September 16, 2024 - Adam Reichardt Jacob Mikanowski Nina Pániková

What happened to Belarus’s once-thriving tech-industry?

Before the anti-government protests that shook Belarus in 2020, a thriving tech-industry existed in the country. Recent events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have shown that a plateau in output is all but assured for at least the next few years. Overall, it appears that the country has suffered from a severe brain drain as talented workers have fled the authoritarian state.

Belarus was once called the “Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe”. From 2005 to 2016, exports of IT services and products grew 30 times over. The share of IT exports in Belarus’s total exports of goods and services increased from 0.16 per cent to 3.25. In 2021 the IT sector was contributing almost a third of GDP growth. However, after the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, the situation changed dramatically.

September 16, 2024 - Kseniya Tarasevich

Giving a voice to those who can no longer speak

There is an ongoing "total purge" to cleanse the world of sensitive people capable of love. It is my conscious choice to engage in socio-political art. This is my feeble attempt to make a change.

September 11, 2024 - Darya (Cemra) Siamchuk

Voices from a changing Moldova

The Moldovan government has recently made an effort to move closer to the European Union. This has been particularly true following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the country heads towards pivotal elections in the autumn, people across the country are trying to work out what is best for the future.

August 30, 2024 - Isabelle de Pommereau

How Lukashenka’s regime silences the Belarusian free press

Since 2020 the Belarusian media field has lost up to ten important independent publications. Some of them did not survive the financial crisis while others were taken over by propaganda or decided to avoid covering politics. The decline in the number of independent media outlets and the difficulty in reaching audiences within the country, where consuming truthful news can result in criminal charges, affects the overall political mood in the country.

In 2023 Belarus ranked 167th out of 180 countries in press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders. Since the political protests in 2020, the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka intensified its persecution of the free press. Currently, there are 35 journalists imprisoned on criminal charges, serving sentences in prisons where they face torture and isolation from the outside world and their families. From 2020 to 2023, nearly 600 journalists and media professionals were arrested, according to Press Club Belarus.

June 22, 2024 - Darya Grishchuk

The Polish pioneers and the unexpected hardships of migrating to Canada

First there were the peasants who went from being subjects of the partitions to pioneers in the Wild West. Then there was the wave of educated people fleeing the communist regime. Among the Poles migrating to Canada were also veterans of the Second World War, in whom Canadian soldiers found a replacement for German prisoners of war.

The journey across the Atlantic was long and difficult. The ship sailed to Canada for a month. Walter F. Chuchla recalls that the ship rocked in all directions and seemed about to break in half. The sea was so rough that the travellers were not allowed to leave their cabins for four days. Disease outbreaks and crowding were also a problem. Many people were dying. Minors were allowed to travel in pairs, on a single ticket, as long as they used one bunk and shared a meal.

June 22, 2024 - Adam Reichardt

The 80th anniversary of a tragedy that continues until today

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, which reminds us of the double tragedy these people face. First in 1944, on Stalin’s orders, they were displaced from their homeland. Second, when after years of struggle, they returned home and rebuilt their lives in independent Ukraine. Despite this, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014. Since 2022, when the full-scale invasion started, the peninsula has been turned into a base for the Russian army.

I visited Crimea for the first time in May 2000. It was the 56th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. In Simferopol a gathering was organized to commemorate the victims of the deportation. Many people held blue Crimean Tatar flags. Some held posters detailing the story of their displacement, and some made demands to the authorities. At that time, and even more so in the years to come, it seemed that the tragic fate of the Crimean Tatars belonged to history. This was the case until 2014. Once the Russian Federation had annexed the peninsula, the Tatars were once again deprived of their right to honour the memory of the deportation as they wished. Worse, they found themselves faced once again with repression.

June 22, 2024 - Piotr Andrusieczko

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