What became of Russia’s democratic aspirations after the collapse of the Soviet Union? From June 10 to 12, 2025, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and other prominent voices from politics, academia, journalism, literature, and human rights will gather to analyze the developments in Russia from 1989 to 1999.

Location: Conference Center, Ruhr University Bochum
Date: June 10–12, 2025
Languages: Russian and English (with simultaneous interpretation)
Registration required: Registration is only possible until June 5 via the email address info.eeca@uaruhr.de

The conference “An Attempt at Democracy: Russia from 1989 to 1999 – Economy, Politics, Society, Culture and Media” explores a crucial decade of transformation. Against the backdrop of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its challenges to European peace and order, this event offers vital insights into the roots of today’s Russia.

Featured Speakers

Among the participants in the conference is Dmitry Muratov, former editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which was banned in Russia in 2022. In 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He recalls the time after the collapse of the Soviet Union as a period of emerging press freedom.
Other contributors include Irina Scherbakova, founding member of the human rights organization Memorial (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022); Ekaterina Schulman, who runs a YouTube channel with over one million subscribers where she comments on political developments; Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic; Kirill Rogov, political scientist; and other renowned figures.

Program
June 10, 2025
10:00–11:30: Kirill Rogov, political scientist, director of the project Re:Russia
“When the bosses left: political economy and social consequences of liberalization”

13:00–14:30: Irina Scherbakova, human rights activist, chair of Zukunft Memorial
“10 years of fighting for memory”

15:00–16:30: Viktor Vakhshtain, sociologist
“The Legend of the 1990s” in the structure of collective memory

June 11, 2025

10:00–11:30: Ksenia Luchenko, journalist
“Revival or reconstruction? The Church, society and power in post-Soviet Russia”

13:00–14:30: Dmitry Muratov, journalist, co-founder of Novaya Gazeta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
“Glasnost – the emergence of a free press in the USSR and its development in the 1990s. A subjective view from a participant in the events”

15:00–16:30: Ekaterina Schulman, political scientist
Topic: “Love in three convocations: Russian parliamentarism at the end of the 20th century”

June 12, 2025
10:00–11:30: Alexander Arkhangelsky, author
“Tuning fork: key texts of the era and attempts at transformation through culture”

13:00–14:30: Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic
“Literature in the 1990s: deferred demand and the crisis of reproduction as factors of formation”