"War and Terror in Chechnya" Conference at William & Mary

Tue Mar 25 22:07:19 UTC 2003

PRESS RELEASE

War and Terror in Chechnya
The New Russia Between East and West

On April 4-6, 2003, the College of William & Mary and
the Kimball Theatre will host ?War and Terror in
Chechnya:  The New Russia Between East and West.? This
three-day event includes lectures and screenings of
several recent Russian films devoted to the on-going
conflict in the Caucasus between Russia and Chechnya.

The Caucasus region, especially Chechnya, has long been
an area of intense local conflict with far-reaching
implications for Russian national identity, politics,
and society.  For almost two hundred years, the fires
of discontent have been fueled by ethnic and religious
differences between the local Muslim population and the
Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet political authorities.
>From nineteenth-century Russian writers like Pushkin,
Lermontov and Tolstoy to contemporary filmmakers like
Alexander Rogozhkin, Sergei Bodrov and Alexei
Balabanov, the struggle for control of the Caucasus has
been interpreted as a struggle for the very soul of
Russia. Today this historical conflict is implicated in
the world wide struggle between the democracies of the
West and a resurgent Islamic Fundamentalism.  What are
the chances that a new Russia can bring the region
under control, without further enflaming national and
religious passions?  In the films and lectures of the
conference, contemporary Russian filmmakers and
scholars of Russian history and culture attempt to
address this most intractable and violent problem of
Russian history.

The schedule of events is as follows:

Friday, April 4, 2003

4:30-5:30 Austin Jersild, History Dept, Old Dominion
University, "The War on Terror and the Flight from
History: Russian-Chechen Relations." Washington Hall
201.

Professor Jersild was educated at St. Olaf College (BA,
1984), the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (M.A.,
1989), and the University of California at Davis
(Ph.D., 1994).  He has conducted research in archives
and libraries in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Tbilisi,
Georgia with the support of the Hoover Institute of
Stanford University, the Kennan Institute of the
Woodrow Wilson Center, and the American Council on
International Education.  He is the author of
Orientalism and Empire: North Caucasus Mountain Peoples
and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917, (McGill-Queens
University Press, 2002), and numerous articles and
reviews devoted to Russia?s colonial expansion in the
nineteenth century.
         Dr. Jersild has been on the faculty at ODU since
1994.

         Lecture open to the public, reception following the
lecture.

8PM Movie Screening Checkpoint (Blokpost)(1998), dir.
Alexander Rogozhkin, Washington Hall 201. Introduction
by Professor Alexander Prokhorov of the College of
William and Mary.

         Despite being plagued by a mysterious sniper,
international observers and lawyers investigating the
shooting of a Chechen civilian, a platoon of Russian
conscripts gradually adjusts to life at an isolated
checkpoint in Chechnya.  A shocking ending reveals the
tragic nature of war in this powerful movie by one of
contemporary Russia?s most popular movie directors.

        In Russian with English subtitles. Screening is free
and open to the public.

Saturday, April 5

4-5PM Nina Khrushcheva, New School University, lecture,
        ?Chechnya and the Treason of the Russian
Intelligentsia,? Washington Hall 201.

                Nina Khrushcheva is professor of Media and Culture in
the Graduate Program of International Affairs, senior
fellow of the World Policy Institute at New School
University and adjunct assistant professor at the
School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia
University.  She is also the granddaughter of Nikita
Khrushchev.  After receiving her Ph.D in Comparative
Literature from Princeton University, she had a two-
year appointment as a research fellow at the School of
Historical Studies of the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton and then served as Deputy Editor of the
East European Constitutional Review at the NYU School
of Law. Dr. Khrushcheva?s numerous articles have
appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post,
The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia
Inquirer, Times Literary Supplement and other
international publications.

        Open to the public, reception following the lecture.

7PM     Kimball Theatre.  The War (Voina) (2002), dir.
Alexei Balabanov. Introduction by Professor Alexander
Prokhorov, College of William and Mary.

Kidnapping, ransom, and revenge with an international
cast on location in the Caucasus.  A controversial
political action thriller by Alexei Balabanov, the
director of Brother and Brother 2. Starring Sergei
Bodrov, Jr., the recently deceased star of the
?Brother? films, The War won the major prize at the
Kinotavr Film Festival in 2002.

In Russian, English, Chechen with subtitles.  Admission
charge.

Sunday, April 6

3-5PM Roundtable discussion (not open to the public),
Reves Center for International Studies.

7PM     Kimball Theatre. Prisoner of the Mountains
        (Kavkazskii plennik) (1996), dir.  Sergei Bodrov.
Introduction by Professor Tony Anemone, College of
William and Mary.

                Inspired by Leo Tolstoy?s short story of the same
name.  Two Russian soldiers, Sasha and Vanya, are
captured by Muslim rebels in the Caucasus.  They are
held captive in a mountain village by Abdul-Murat, the
vengeful father of a young man imprisoned by the local
Russian commander.  The Russian POWs languish as their
captor tries to arrange a swap for his son and fends
off neighbors who would just as soon kill the soldiers.
Prisoner of the Mountains won the director's award at
the Cannes International Film Festival in 1996.

         In Russian with English subtitles.  Admission charge.

For more information, please visit the following
website:
http://www.resnet.wm.edu/~jmkise   Or contact Professor
Tony Anemone, 221-3636.

?War and Terror in Chechnya:  The New Russia Between
East and West? is sponsored by the Department of Modern
Languages and Literatures, the Program in Russian
Studies, the Russian Club, the Office of the Dean of
Undergraduate Studies, the Reves Center for
International Studies and the Kimball Theatre.

Tony Anemone, Chair MLL
Associate Professor of Russian
P.O. Box 8795
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
College of William and Mary
phone:          757-221-3636
fax:            757-221-3637

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