Międzynarodowa konferencja naukowa „Sowiecka Azja Centralna jako totalitarne laboratorium” - Program konferencji - Instytut Pileckiego
Conference Programme
September 2
Lecture Hall: Simultaneous interpretation available in Polish, English, and Russian.
Conference Room (5th Floor): Panels conducted in the audience's preferred language (Polish, English, or Russian).
8.30–9.00 Welcome coffee
9.00–10.00 Keynote lecture (Lecture Hall)
Manara Kalybekova Kazakhstan as a Strategic Location for the Implementation of the Soviet Model of State-Building
10.15–11.45
Panel 1
Digital Archival Resources and Their Use in Research on Soviet Central Asia (Lecture Hall)
Prof. Saule Satayeva “Blank Spots” of History and Archival Research Methods Applied to the Creation of Audiovisual Documents in Foreign Collections
Dr Paweł Lesisz Presentation of the Pilecki Institute’s Archival Holdings Related to Central Asia
Dr Jerzy Rohoziński, Tomasz Gleb Audiovisual Materials from Kazakhstan in the Pilecki Institute’s Archival Collections
Panel 2
Russian Colonialism in 19th-Century Central Asia and the Polish Connection: Towards Soviet Totalitarianism?, part 1 (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
dr hab. Mariusz Kulik Poles in the Russian Army during the Conquest of Central Asia
Igor Strojecki Pułkownik Leon Barszczewski as a Russian intelligence officer – new documents
prof. dr hab. Iwona Sakowicz-Tebinka British Public Opinion Towards Russian Expansion in Central Asia in the Second Half of the 19th Century
11.45–12.10 Coffee break
Panel 1
The Soviet Legacy in Central Asia Through the Eyes of Polish Reporters (Lecture Hall)
Speakers: Wojciech Górecki, Joanna Czeczott, dr Emilia Sułek (authors of outstanding non-fiction books on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan)
Expert commentary: Aurelia Szwajkowska: Representations of the Legacy of Soviet Colonialism in the Reportage of Joanna Czeczott, Emilia Sułek, and Wojciech Górecki
Panel 2
Soviet Central Asia in Western and Polish Émigré Perspectives (Conference Room, Vth Floor, in Polish)
Dr Bartłomiej Krzysztan Between Decolonisation and Instrumentalisation: The Caucasus and Central Asia in Early Cold War Soviet Studies
Dr Jerzy Rohoziński The Year 1979 and the Emergence of Soviet Islam as a New Field of Study in Western Sovietology
Barbara Świtalska -Starzeńska Aleksander Wat in Kazakhstan, 1941–1942
13.40–14.50 Lunch
Panel 1
Roman and Greek Catholicism in Soviet Central Asia: The Resilience of Belief, Hierarchy, and Ethno-Religious Identities (Lecture Hall)
Dr Robert Wyszyński The Role of Religion in Shaping the Collective Identity of an Isolated Community of Descendants of Deported Poles in Kazakhstan
Dr Dmitriy Panto The Evolution of the Structures of the Catholic Church in Central Asia in the 20th Century: Formation, Destruction, and Reconstruction
Dr Nestor Manichkin-Pilawski The Greek Catholic Underground in Karaganda
Panel 2
Polish Encounters with Soviet Central Asia Marked by Tragedy, part 1 (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Prof. Jerzy Grzybowski Polish Citizens of the Orthodox Faith in Central Asia between 1940 and 1942
Dr Adam Żaliński Resistance to Discuss Sensitive Topics within a Victim Diaspora. Silence as a Survival Strategy among the Polish Minority in Kazakhstan
Dr Bota Zhunusova The History of the Formation of the Polish Diaspora in Kazakhstan in the Context of Migration and Deportation Processes in the 19th and 20th Centuries
prof. Saodat Pirimkulova Material Support for Polish Children in the USSR (1941–1946)
Panel 1
Memory and the Politics of Memory: Colonial Practices and Voices of Resistance of Indigenous Peoples, part 1 (Lecture Hall)
Gulzat Egemberdieva “Üshkürük – The Sigh of Memory”: An Autobiographical Novel/„Üszkürük – westchnienia pamięci”: powieść autobiograficzna
Dr Gulnara Abikeyeva Nuclear Necropolitics: The Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakh Cinema
Dr Gulzat Alagoz Stalinist Repression in Kyrgyzstan: Techniques of Violence, Social Transformation, and the Politics of Memory
Prof. Baurzhan Zhanguttin Beyond the Scope of the Judicial Records: The Work of the Special Commissions of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Kazakhstan, 1954–1959
16.30-17.30 Session of the Polish-Kazakh Commission of Historians – a forum for exchanging research findings and discussing the shared historical heritage of Poland and Kazakhstan in the twentieth century (Library, Ist Floor)
18.00 Screening of the film Three Quarters to Death: The Last Deportation (Lecture Hall)
Lecture Hall: Simultaneous interpretation available in Polish, English, and Russian.
Conference Room (5th Floor): Panels conducted in the audience's preferred language (Polish, English, or Russian).
8.30–9.00 Welcome coffee
9.00–10.00 Keynote lecture (Lecture Hall)
Renat Bekkin The Discourse of War and Peace in the Rhetoric of Soviet Muftiates in the 1940s–1980s (on the Example of the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan)
Panel 1
Varieties of Coercive Techniques: Soviet Methods of Repression and Subjugation (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Dr Alisher Latypov The Repression of Opium Smokers and the Beginnings of Psychiatry in Soviet Tajikistan: From Show Trials and GULAG to Mandatory Psychiatric Confinement and “Forced Labor Therapy”, 1926–1959
Helene Henze Forced Child Labor in Wartime Kazakhstan: “Fabrichno-Zavodnoe Obuchenie” as an Instrument of Repression
David Shakarishvili Security Through Fear: Soviet Repression as a Model of Totalitarian Stability
Maria Żukowska The History Textbook as a Tool for Shaping Historical Memory: The Portrayal of Central Asia in Russian School History Textbooks in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Educational Discourse (1985–2023)
The Destruction of Traditional Elites and National Intelligentsias in Central Asia: Adaptation, Resistance, and the Consequences of Terror Politics (Lecture Hall)
Prof. Zamira Ishankhodjayeva The Impact of Soviet Repressive Policies on the Cultural and Intellectual Development of Uzbek Society during the Stalinist Era (1920s to early 1950s)
Dr Bahrom Irzajew The Elimination of the Local Elites of the Emirate of Bukhara
Dr Zukhra Altymyshova Dekulakization in Soviet Kyrgyzstan as a Tool of Repression: The Experiences of Deported Kulaks
11.45–12.10 Coffee Break / Przerwa kawowa / Кофе-пауза
Panel 1
Polish Encounters with Soviet Central Asia Marked by Tragedy, part 2 (Lecture Hall)
Prof. Selim Chazbijewicz The Cultural and Social Situation of the Contemporary Polish Diaspora in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Prof. Albina Zhanbossinova The NKVD’s Polish Operation in Kazakhstan
Prof. Muqaddas Hashimova The History of Deported Poles in Uzbekistan as Depicted in the Works of Professor Sh. Pirimkulov
Panel 2
Soviet Secularisation, Endurance and Resurgence of Islam in Soviet Central Asia (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Dr hab. Anna Cieślewska Saints, Spirits, and Survival: Islam and Local Narratives under Soviet Rule
Barys Paulau, Anna Verenchikova-Galkina Women, Religion, and Power: Soviet-Style Secularization in Central Asia between Emancipation and Control
Dr Haris bin Aziz From Soviet Secularization to Post-9/11 Climate of Suspicion: Continuities in Governing Islam in Central Asia and Pakistan
Yohanes Krismantyo Susanta The Diplomacy of Shrines: Soviet Instrumentalization of Islamic Heritage in Uzbekistan during Sukarno’s 1956 Visit
Dr Ludwika Włodek National and Religious Movements in Tajikistan during the Perestroika Period
13.40–14.50 Lunch
Panel 1
Russian Colonialism in 19th-Century Central Asia and the Polish Connection: Towards Soviet Totalitarianism?, part 2 (Conference Room, Vth Floor, in Polish)
Prof. Wiesław Caban Bronisław Zaleski's descriptions of the Kazakh steppes
dr Piotr Głuszkowski Jan Prosper Witkiewicz in the Kazakh Steppes and Bukhara
mgr Karolina Brzykcy The Role of Asia in 19th-Century Russian Colonization: Sergei Nikolaevich Yuzhakov’s Narodnik Perspective
Indigenous Traditions and Sovietization in Central Asia: Forms of Cultural Resistance (Lecture Hall)
Zurtan Khaltarov From Poor Peasants’ Committees to Collective Farms in Ethnic Buryatia: The Sovietization of a Traditional Society in a Comparative Perspective with Central Asia
Dr Shavkatjon Rakhmatullayev Regulating Ritual: State Intervention in Family Ceremonies in Uzbekistan (A Case Study of an Archival Document from the Namangan Oblast Committee of the Communist Party from the Early 1970s)
Dr Zaynab Xudayarova Outside the Orbit of Soviet Totalitarian Influence: Khorezmian Halpas
Igor Strojecki Lenin in the ‘folk art’ of the peoples of Central Asia
16.30–18.00
In memory of Prof. Antoni Kuczyński, a distinguished scholar of Polish relations with Siberia and Kazakhstan (Conference Room, in Polish)
Speakers: Piotr Głuszkowski, Barbara Jędrychowska, Zbigniew Wójcik, Marcin Zwolski, Karolina Kondracka, Aleksander Serebrakowski
Lecture Hall: Simultaneous interpretation available in Polish, English, and Russian.
Conference Room (5th Floor): Panels conducted in the audience's preferred language (Polish, English, or Russian).
8.30–9.00 Welcome coffee
9.00–10.00 Keynote lecture (Lecture Hall)
Alibek Tabuldenov Polish Exiles in Northern Kazakhstan in the 1930s and 1940s: Demographics, Occupational Structure, Age and Gender Distribution
Panel 1 Soviet Nation-Building, Resettlement Policies, and New Identities (Lecture Hall)
Prof. Gulnar Kozgambaeva The history of the deported Ahiska (Meskhetian) Turks to the Turkestan Region (the 1940s)
Begoña M. García Marina Coping after Displacement? Survival and Transformations of Chechen Identity in Kazakhstan and among the Kists of the Pankisi Gorge
Dr Sougand Akbarian Language Planning and Linguistic Identity in Soviet Central Asia: Script Reforms, Multilingualism, and Language Transformations
Dr Adolat Rakhmankulova The Forced Resettlement of Peoples as an Instrument of the Totalitarian Regime’s Repressive Policies: The Composition and Settlement Patterns of the Deported Population in Uzbekistan (1930s–1940s)
Dr Gitesh Kumar Engineering a Socialist Society: Soviet Nation-Building and Totalitarian Rule in Central Asia (1917–1991)
Panel 2
Memory and the Politics of Memory: Colonial Practices and Voices of Resistance of Indigenous Peoples, part 2 (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Dr Shokhruz Sharipov Coming to Terms with the Soviet Past in Uzbekistan: Reassessing the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression and Its Role in Historical Memory
Mgr Anna Dotsiak Deportation as a Tool of Soviet Social Engineering: The Polish Minority in Kazakhstan and the Politics of Memory after 1991
Dr Margaret Comer Violence on and off the Battlefield, Present and Past: Depictions and Discourses of WWII Suffering at Memory Sites in Kazakhstan
11.45–12.10 Coffee Break
Panel 1
Societal and Environmental Impact of the Soviet Experiment in Central Asia (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Dr Victoria Martynov Uranium, Empire, and Exclusion: The Social Consequences of the Soviet Atomic Program in Central Asia
Krystian Pachucki-Włosek Urbanization as an Experiment: The Construction of Soviet Cities in Kazakhstan
Dr Ewelina Morawska Central Asia in the Energy Policy of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation
Dr hab. Askar Djumashev: Karakalpakstan in 1941–1945: Historical Memory as a Source for the Study of Evacuation and Deportation of Peoples
Koreans in Soviet Central Asia: Models of Adaptation of an Uprooted Ethnic Group in Comparison with Poles and Other Nationalities (Lecture Hall)
Prof. German Kim Towards a Study of Successive Ethnic Deportations in the USSR
Dr Jaloliddin Mirzayev THE AMUDARYA BORDER REGION: SOVIET NATIONAL POLICY TOWARDS ETHNIC GROUPS (THE 1930s)
Prof. Dmitriy Legkiy Poles and Koreans in the Teacher Education System of the Kazakh SSR, 1939–1954 (with a Focus on the Kustanai Teachers’ Institute)
Dr Mariusz Marszewski “Labor” or “survivall”? Deported Koreans, Volga Germans and Chechens in the Eyes of the Inhabitants of Soviet Central Asia
13.40–14.50 Lunch
Panel 1
Soviet Central Asia as a Place of Exile and Suffering (Lecture Hall)
Dr Melaike Huseyin Systemic Connections between the Azerbaijan SSR and Soviet Central Asia in the Context of Repressive Policies
Ivan Sokolovskiy “Labor Deportees Were Resettled in the Deserted Steppes of Northern Kazakhstan”: Stalinist Deportations, Land Rationalization, and the Economy of Deportation
Kateryna Vasylyk Kazakhstan, Land of the Gulags: How Exiles Shaped Kazakh Society
Dr Qahramon Baxridinov The Famine in the Ferghana Valley, 1917–1924
prof. Natalia Kuzovova Ukrainians in Kazakhstan during the Famine of 1930–1934
Panel 2
Truth and Memory of Russian/Soviet Aggression: Afghanistan and Ukraine (Conference Room, Vth Floor)
Dr Kamil Wielecki Between Trauma and Sovereignty: Memory of the Afghan War (1979–1989) in Central Asian Societies from a Decolonial Perspective
Dr Aliaksandr Paharely The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in the Context of Intergenerational Memory: Personal Memories, Digitalization and Museification, 1984–2025
Simona Uksaitė Differentiated Models of Governance in Russia’s Domestic Information Environment: The Portrayal of the War in Ukraine (Chechnya, Bashkortostan, Buryatia)
Panel 1
Modern Central Asia between the Shadow of the Totalitarian Past and the Challenges of the New World (Dis)order (Lecture Hall)
dr hab. Nartsiss Shukuralieva Central Asia as a (Post)colonial Laboratory of (In)security: Between the Soviet Legacy and Contemporary Regimes of Control
dr Mykola Riabchuk “Pluralism by Default” and Its Critics: Hazy Prospects for Democratization in Central Asia
dr Bakhrom Radjabov Building Social Innovation Systems in Central Asia: A Comparison of the Situation in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan
dr Abdushukur Alijonow Will Uzbekistan Be Able to Overcome Its Geographical and Colonial Constraints?
Rukiye Turdush China’s Legal Warfare: The Case of East Turkistanian
18.00 Closing Session
