This conference explores the paradoxes of communist internationalism by focusing on the USSR and its satellites. Soviet type regimes claimed to transcend the nation-state and condemned nationalism as a bourgeois relic, yet they relied and often mobilized national loyalties to legitimize and maintain control. Communist countries theorized anti-colonialism and promoted racial equality abroad, even while repressing minorities and silencing ethnic tensions at home. The collapse of communism as a social and political system exposed these contradictions. By examining the gap between ideology and practice, the conference investigates nationalism’s persistence and its enduring role in shaping contemporary politics.

Organized by Berit Ebert, Denis Skopin, and Ewa Atanassow (Bard College Berlin). In cooperation with Smolny Beyond Borders and Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur.

From 9:00-17:45, the conference takes place in Julie Johnson Kidd Hall of Bard College Berlin (Waldstr. 15, 13156 Berlin). From 18:30-20:30, the evening event will take place at Metis Books and Café (Gleimstraße 21, 10437 Berlin).

More information about the conference and the program are available here.