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[Polly Jones]

Dear all
Here are details of a conference on Soviet leader cults, to be held in Italy next month, which may be of interest. Please contact me for further details.
Polly Jones

Polly Jones
Max Hayward Fellow
St Antony's College
University of Oxford

------------------
Stalin and the Lesser Gods - La Capella, European
         University Institute, Florence
Organizers: Arfon Rees (EUI, Florence), Balázs Apor (EUI, Florence), Jan
C. Behrends (Herder-Institut, Marburg), Polly Jones (St. Antony's
College, Oxford), Florence, Italy
15.05.2003-16.05.2003, La Capella, European University Institute,
Florence


Despite the enormous effect of the cult of communist party leaders on
the everyday experience of the people of the Soviet Union and other
communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe, the leader-cult
phenomenon remains relatively understudied by historians. It is
frequently referred to, and is often dealt with, within a broad
historical context, but comprehensive and concise case studies on the
cult of Stalin and the cults of his followers in the Central-Eastern
European satellite states (Rákosi, Bierut, Gottwald, Ulbricht,
Gheorgiu-Dej etc.) are very few in number. Moreover, the concept of the
'cult of personality' - a Soviet euphemism in itself - remains unclear
and vague, both in general historiography, and in the political language
of the Stalin- and post-Stalin-era. This term is heavily loaded thus we
should aim for an understanding of its function within communist
political discourse rather than assigning intrinsic meaning to it.

The workshop will focus on the omnipresent leader-cult phenomenon in the
Stalin-era and in the immediate post-Stalin period until the 22nd
Congress of the CPSU in 1961. Its main goal is to define the primary
social function of the cult of leaders in Stalinist societies. Was it
the creation of a myth of legitimacy? If yes, then did the party-state
manage to achieve its goal of attaining additional legitimacy through
the leader cult? Can we speak of the party-state's attempt to
mass-manufacture charisma in the Weberian sense of the term?

Through its analytical-comparative perspective, the workshop will also
try to shed light on the relationship between the cults of local,
national leaders and the cult of Stalin, which overshadowed them.
Through investigating the manifestations of individual leader-cults in
the Soviet Bloc we hope to further investigate how the patterns of
Stalin's representations were adopted and modified in different national
contexts and what constituted the 'national' peculiarities of each
satellite party leader's cult. We would also like to clarify how these
"Byzantine" cults were perceived in the different cultural settings of
the Soviet Union and the Central European "people's democracies". Apart
from that, the overall structure and organisation of the cults will be
examined as well - both on a national and international level - to
demonstrate the hierarchical nature of the cult phenomenon. Finally, we
would also like to stress the series of problems that arose in Russia
and in the bloc when Khrushchev launched the campaign of dismantling the
"cult of personality" from above in de-Stalinisation. In conclusion, we
hope to be able to form the first synthesis on this important aspect of
Stalinist society.


15 May, 2003

Opening Session:
Leader Cults in European and Soviet contexts
(Chair: Arfon Rees)

9.30-10.30
Arfon Rees (EUI, Florence):
Cults, Varieties and Preconditions

10.30-11.30
Robert Service (St. Antonys's College, Oxford):
Twentieth-Century Political Cults

Coffee break (11.30-12.00)

Panel 1:
The Making of the Cult. Tools and Individuals
(Chair: Arfon Rees)

12.00-13.00
Sarah Davies (University of Durham):
Stalin on the Stalin Cult

Lunch break 13.00-14.30

14.30-15.30
Árpád von Klimó (Humboldt University, Berlin):
Béla Illés - The Man behind the Stalinist Cult in Hungary

15.30-16.30
Balázs Apor (EUI, Florence):
Towards a Cult of Impersonality: The Uses and Significance of
Biographies in Mátyás Rákosi's Cult

Coffee break (16.30-17.00)

Panel 2:
The Functions of the Leader Cult
(Chair: Balázs Apor)

17.00-18.00
Benno Ennker (University of Tübingen):
The Stalin Cult, Bolshevik Rule and Kremlin Interactions in the 1930s

18.00-19.00
Catriona Kelly (New College, Oxford):
Uncle Stalin and Grandpa Lenin. Soviet Leader Cults for Little Children


16 May, 2003

Panel 3:
Beyond Moscow: The Peripheries of the Cult
(Chair: Polly Jones)

9.30-10.30
Malte Rolf (Humboldt University, Berlin):
Leader Cults in the Making: Cult Production as a Social Practice and a
Cultural Code. Case Studies from the Soviet Provinces

10.30-11.30
Jan C. Behrends (Herder-Institut, Marburg):
The Leader's Multiple Identities: The Stalin Cult in Poland and the GDR
(1949-1953)

Coffee break (11.30-12.00)

12.00-13.00
Izabella Main (Malopolska Culture Institute, Cracow):
The Attempt of the Polish Communist Party to Create the Cult of Boleslaw
Bierut

Lunch break 13.00-14.30

Panel 4 :
The Art of the Cult
(Chair: Jan C. Behrends)

14.30-15.30
Jan Plamper (University of Tübingen):
Aleksander Gerasimov and the Modes of Cultural Production: Stalin and
Voroshilov in the Kremlin (1938)

15.30-16.30
Alice Mocanescu (University of Durham):
The Cult of Ceausecu in Painting. The Soviet Pattern Meets the Romanian
Tradition

Coffee break 16.30-17.00

Panel 5:
The Dilemmas of de-Stalinisation: Change and Continuity in Leader Cult
Patterns in the Post-Stalin Period
(Chair: Malte Rolf)

17.00-18.00
Polly Jones (St. Antony's College, Oxford):
De-Stalinising Soviet Space. The Stalin-Cult in Stalingrad (1953-1963)

18.00-19.00
Marcin Zaremba (Polish Academy of Sciences,
University of Warsaw):
The Cult of the First Secretary in Poland

19.00 Closing Discussion

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Balázs Apor
balazs.apor at iue.it
Jan C. Behrends
behrends at staff.uni-marburg.de
Polly Jones
Polly.jones at sant.ox.ac.uk



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