Lecture format: on site

Venue: Erika-Weinzierl-Saal, Main Buiding, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna

Defining what Russophobia is and describing its action is much more complex than it might seem. The word has a clear descriptive component: hatred of “Russians”. But at the same time the concept has been abused by Russian propaganda. It would be convenient, therefore, to start to distinguish what is concrete and real in the phobia and what is imposture and constructed by the propaganda. The lecture has two main objectives. One is to narrate succinctly the history of prejudices against Russia. A second is to show that these historical prejudices - that is our analysis - have not constituted a barrier to knowing or appreciating Russian culture. In the end, we are trying to escape from the mere recurrence of stereotypes and from ascribing essential characteristics to collectives and peoples.

José M. Faraldo is professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), department for Modern and Contemporary History; 2004 to 2008, research fellow at the Center of Research on Contemporary History, (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, ZZF), in Potsdam (Germany). 1997-2002, post-doc at the Europe Universitä Viadrina, in Frankfurt/Oder (Germany). Last books: José M. Faraldo (Ed.), Collapsed Empires after 1917 in Europe and the Mediterranean, Berlin: Lit Verlag 2020; Contra Hitler y Stalin. La resistencia en Europa (1936-1956), Madrid: Alianza Editorial 2022; José M. Faraldo, Gutmaro Gómez Bravo (Eds.) Interacting Francoism. Entanglement, Comparison and Transfer between Dictatorships in the 20th Century, Routledge, 2023; José M. Faraldo, Rusofobia. Ensayo sobre prejuicios y propaganda, Madrid 2023.

FREE ENTRY.

The event will be recorded and uploaded to RECET's YouTube channel.