Some of the greatest secular hopes and fears have been, and continue to be projected on Russia and its empire: The hope that Russian visionaries would salvage mankind from the evils of exploitation and injustice, and the fear that its leaders might attempt to swallow and destroy the rest of humanity. In fact, the pursuit of war and the hope for peace, as well as the quest for empire and the struggle against it have repeatedly cast Russia and the Soviet Union into the center of international public attention. At least since the last third of the nineteenth century, events in Russia led to the emergence of transnational publics that can be described as ‘global’ in that they went beyond the ‘West’ and were often transimperial and transcontinental in nature. The ongoing war against Ukraine is but the latest in a longer line of historical events that have caused (parts of) the world to look to Russia with either fascination or dread.

The Workshop will explore when, how and where Russia came to attract attention on a global scale. Instead of analyzing certain “images” or “stereotypes” of things Russian, the workshop will focus on the various actors, networks and communication infrastructures that have enabled global debates about Russia, the Soviet Union and their history. It will focus on singular events that triggered debates beyond borders, and that can be used as vantage points for an analysis of the geographic reach, as well as the dynamic interactions between various publics within and across imperial and national borders. In this way, the workshop seeks not only to contribute to a better understanding of Russia’s place and role in transnational and transcontinental public spheres, but also to shed light on the general structure of news dissemination and networks. We assume that Russia has often become the focus of attention through spectacular acts of violence, and we are particularly interested in papers addressing such events, but we are also open to papers addressing transnational scandals, celebrations (weddings, coronations), conferences or congresses.

Valeska Huber and Jürgen Osterhammel have defined the global public as “a very large group, dispersed transnationally and, mostly, transcontinentally. Its members are, as a general rule, unknown to each other, but share a common focus of attention.” The conference will take this idea to the study of Russia and Eastern Europe. Since the 19th century, telegraphs, networks of correspondents and news agencies have transformed global communication. They have enabled the transfer of knowledge and created new transcontinental connections, but they also created new divisions and disconnections. Within these networks, the Russian and Soviet states occupied peculiar positions: On the one hand, they aspired to be major players in the dissemination of knowledge and news, on the other hand they were often sidelined by the dominant centers of news distribution in Western Europe and later the United States. Pogroms, acts of terror and terrorism, revolutionary upheavals, massacres, show trials and famines have repeatedly directed the gaze of global publics towards Russia and the Soviet Union, while at the same time reinforcing the image of its peripherality and exceptionality. In the workshop, we aim to understand how such events created controversy and division beyond those who have been directly affected, beyond regional and national borders, and also beyond the usual suspects in the so-called Western world.

Contributions may address individual events in Russia and the Soviet Union and their global repercussions. Workshop papers may also analyze the structural logic of an increasingly globalized public as well as the individual emotional and political involvement of transnational humanitarian and political activists, including but not limited to transnational socialist, anarchist, anticolonial or women’s movements. They may focus on the counter-publics of conservative, antisemitic and right-wing publishers, or address the role of the popular mass circulation press, including the rapidly expanding ways of disseminating sound and (moving) images. We thus seek to understand the relationship between individual events and the structures of the global public, as well as between their local and globalized resonances.
- Where and when did events in Russia reach a global public? Via which channels did they resonate beyond Russia and the Soviet Union? In what ways did the news inspire recipients to react and act?
- When and how were events in Russia ascribed a ‘universal’ significance, affecting humanity as a whole? When and how were events in Russia closely followed and analyzed outside the ‘West’?
- What is the relationship between larger structures and imbalances of the international system and Russia’s place in global public debates? And how can we address the connection between the material reality of Russia’s actions and the spectacle created via the dynamics of global public attention?

The workshop is a cooperation between FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and the University of Tübingen and will take place on 10-11 April 2025 in Tübingen. Researchers who are considering submitting a proposal and are unsure whether their topic is a good fit are encouraged to contact the organizers in advance. We plan to publish selected workshop papers as a special issue of a refereed journal. Accommodation will be organized and paid for by the workshop organizers. In many cases we can also contribute to travel costs – please contact j.arend@uni-tuebingen.de if you have any questions regarding travel costs. Please send your paper proposal to j.arend@uni-tuebingen.de by 15 December 2024. The proposal should include an abstract of up to 350 words, a short CV (1-2 pages) and contact information.