The Platform of European Memory and Conscience including 21 institutions from 13 countries was founded in Prague on Friday, 14 October 2011. The Platform strives for fostering cooperation between organisations focusing on historical research and making people aware of the totalitarian regimes both at national and international levels. The Platform also aims at promoting joint projects between the archives safe-keeping the documentation on such regimes in general and on violation of human rights in particular. Joint research and educational projects are planned.

Swedish politician Göran Lindblad was elected president of the Platform, dr. Neela Winkelmann of Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes became acting head of the organisation. Representatives of German, Polish, Romanian, and Slovenian organisations were elected to the Board. The Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attended the signing ceremony at Liechtenstein Palace in Prague.

Preparations for the establishment of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience were launched in the autumn of 2008 on the initiative of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes at the time Czech Republic was presiding the European Union.

Members of the Platform are:

• Bulgaria: Hannah Arendt Center – Sofia
• Estonia: Estonian Institute of Historical Memory and the Unitas Foundation
• The Netherlands: Foundation History of Totalitarian Regimes and their Victims
• Lithuania: Secretariat of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and the Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania and The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
• Latvia: The Occupation Museum Association of Latvia and the Association for Research of Occupation of Latvia
• Poland: Institute of National Remembrance and Warsaw Rising Museum
• Sweden: The Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism
• Romania: Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile
• Germany: The Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former GDR, the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the Hannah Arendt Society (Köln) and the Saxon Memorial Foundation (Dresden)
• Slovakia: Jan Langoš Foundation
• Slovenia: Study Centre for National Reconciliation
• Czech Republic: Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive
• Hungary: The Public Foundation for the Research of Central and East European History and Society – House of Terror Museum

Venue: Nordic Hotel Forum Conference Centre, Viru Väljak 3, Tallinn
9-10 June 2011
Conference Languages: English, Estonian
Organizers: The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (www.mnemosyne.ee) and the Unitas Foundation (www.unitasfoundation.org).

Thursday, 9 June

10:00 Opening

10:30 Panel 1: Policy, Methods and Means for Shaping Communist Identity and Personality, moderator Marcus Meckel

• Silviu Taras (Romania) – Public Rituals in Transformation – Identity Management in the Communist Romania
• Leo Jansons (Latvia) – As They Saw It: the American Propaganda on Ideological Shaping of the Soviet Man
• Eli Pilve (Estonia) – Ideological Brainwashing in the Classrooms in Estonia during the Soviet Period

13:00 Lunch

14:30-16:00 Panel 2: Soviet Historical Propaganda Aimed at Baltic Emigrants, moderator Meelis Maripuu

• Ivo Juurvee and Maarja Talgre (Estonia, Sweden) – Two Points of View on Soviet Propaganda targeting Estonian Diaspora
• Dr. Simo Mikkonen (Finland) – Giving a Lesson in History – Soviet Attempts to Manipulate Estonian Émigré Communities

16:30-18:00 Tour of Tallinn for the conference speakers

19:00 Reception in the Hall of the Estonian Academy of Sciences (Kohtu st. 6, invitations)

Friday, 10 June

10:00 Panel 3: Present day consequences and influences of the shaping of communist identity and personality, moderator Mart Laar

• Dr. Jernej Letnar Černič (Slovenia) – The remains of communist identity in Slovenia
• Klinta Ločmele (Latvia) – (Un)told Memories: Communicating the (Soviet) Past in Latvian Families
• Oleksandr Svyetlov (Ukraine) – Bandera’s Heroisation in the Context of Ukraine’s Soviet Legacies

13:00 Lunch

14:30 Public session: Prof. Norman M. Naimark – Stalin’s Genocides

15:30 Panel 4: Some Legal Aspects in the Historical Treatment of Eastern European Totalitarian Regimes, moderator Nicholas Lane

• Dr. Agata Fijalkowski (UK) – The Role of the Law in Shaping Judicial Identity: the Polish Experience
• Prof. Lauri Mälksoo (Estonia) – Memory Wars and International Law

17:00 Conclusions, Closing

For additional information please contact: conference@mnemosyne.ee

Date: June 9-10, 2011
Conference Venue: Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tallinn, Estonia
Conference Languages: English, Estonian
Organizers: The Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (www.mnemosyne.ee) and the Unitas Foundation (www.unitasfoundation.org).

The aim of totalitarian regimes was the radical transformation of personalities and of the identity of their subjects into a new ideological form. During the second half of the 20th century, the image of the identity of all communist regimes included official treatments of history based on Soviet-style outlines and created under the control of the ruling single party. Official history was supposed to establish the conviction that the regime was born according to the will of the broad masses and is thus legitimate from the beginning and forever. The narrative of the Great Patriotic War waged against “fascist Germany and imperialist Japan” played a major role in forming the post-war identity of “Soviet people”. Winning the war and driving German forces out of Eastern Europe established the Eastern Bloc controlled by the Soviet Union, in other words the so-called socialist friendship alliance. Winning the war and the tens of millions of human lives sacrificed for that victory seemingly justified the aspirations of the Soviet Union to participate in a leading role in reorganising the post-war world. Artificially created official history and the new historical identity that this history forced upon the population required the establishment of a single infallible truth through half-truths and outright lies, keeping silent about events that had actually taken place and people that had actually lived.

This was not an ironbound concept. The official treatment of history changed constantly depending on changes in leadership, first and foremost in the Soviet Union but also in other Eastern Bloc countries, as well as on relations with other world powers but also with Third World countries. George Orwell’s book 1984, published in 1948, contained an entirely faithful description of the constant rewriting of history that had already taken place by his time and continued to take place until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.

The aim of this upcoming international academic conference is the detailed yet at the same time general description, analysis and explanation of state policy and actions implemented in Eastern Europe aimed at forming a communist identity and personality based on the official treatments of history of the former Eastern Bloc countries. Associations between the violation of human rights and compulsory shaping of identity will also be examined. We will attempt to appraise the effectiveness of the reshaping of identities and determine the more influential historical fabrications that have carried over into the international discussion of the beginning of the 21st century. Alongside the shaping of identity by the state, we are also interested in other co-factors that shaped official identity, yet also in circumstances that counteracted the shaping of official identity. We consider it important to compare and juxtapose what took place in different countries with treatments that were widespread during the Cold War and later in the West. Interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approaches are welcome. One means of disseminating the conference is also to make the more interesting presentations available to a broader audience through public presentations.

WE INVITE PAPERS WITH TOPICS RELEVANT TO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PANELS
(the working titles are listed below):

1. Policy, methods and means for shaping communist identity and personality;
2. The official version of the history of the establishment of communist regimes “according to the will of the people”;
3. The alteration of the narrative of the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War in the latter half of the 20th century and its application in the shaping of identity and personality;
4. Present day consequences and influences of the shaping of communist identity and personality.

The application relevant to the subject of the conference may be written in English, should consist of no more than 500 words and be accompanied by a brief academic CV. Please indicate for which panel the abstract is intended. Each panel will ultimately have 3–4 panelists.

Applications should be sent to the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory by e-mail conference@mnemosyne.ee or by mail: Tõnismägi 16, 10119 Tallinn, Estonia.

The deadline for applications is 15 January 2011. Successful applicants will be informed of the acceptance of their proposal by 1 February 2011.

A selection of papers will be published as an academic publication.

The organisers will provide speakers with compensation for travel expenses, accommodations and meals as well as fees for publication.

In addition, we hereby announce a call for participants in the conference to interested university students studying in degree programmes. Please send a brief CV and a letter of motivation to the address listed above so that we can decide the compensation of accommodations expenses.

For further questions please contact conference@mnemosyne.ee

The University of Tartu through its International Summer University invites students from universities and higher education establishments, journalists, civil society representatives, opinion leaders, etc throughout the world to participate in the summer course offered in conjunction with the conference. Participants of the Summer University program will attend the conference as part of the academic program and will be offered additional coursework prior and after the conference program. Some of the key speakers will also teach in the academic program. The University of Tartu will award to the student 3 ECTS credits for participants of the summer program, provided that they have passed the course requirements. A limited amount of bursaries for participating at the summer course will be issued by the Unitas Foundation.

Please send CV and motivational letter to info@unitasfoundation.org.

For additional information please access www.isu.ut.ee.

“Estonia and the people of Estonia have endured a lot. However, even today we don’t have a real overview of what exactly happened in Estonia during the Soviet period,” said President Toomas Hendrik Ilves yesterday in Kadriorg, at the first session of the Learned Committee of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.

According to the head of state, together with our children we have the right to know what happened. “This is why the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory will take over where the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity finished. By mapping and investigating human rights violations that were committed during the Soviet period in 1944-1991, which do not match the definition of crimes against humanity.”

“The goal of the Institute of Historical Memory is not to explain whether human rights were violated in Soviet Estonia. There’s no question about it,” said President Ilves. “However, detailed historical research is required to answer as to how and to which extent human rights were violated.”

The President emphasised that the Institute of Historical Memory is not intended to administer justice or find someone guilty. “The facts that will be identified by the institute shall have no legal consequences. Our mission is to understand.”

The research of the institute will be carried out on the basis of grants awarded to scholars. The international committee will make the final decisions regarding the approval of research grants.

The establishment of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory was initiated by President Ilves on 1st February 2008. The International Learned Committee of the Institute of Historical Memory involves notable researchers and politicians from a number of states:

Enrique Barón Crespo (Spain), researcher of law and economics, and former President of the European Parliament from 1989-1992

Timothy Garton Ash (United Kingdom), Professor of European Studies at Oxford University, Leading Researcher of Isaiah Berlin Lectorate of St. Anthony College of Oxford University and Senior Rerseacher of Hoover’s Institute of Stanford University

Kristian Gerner (Sweden), Professor Emeritus of Lund University, historian

Paavo Keisalo (Finland), retired diplomat, acting assistant of Minister Max Jakobson in 1999–2009, while he was discharging the functions of the Head of Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity

Nicholas Lane (United States of America), former Vice President of American Jewish Committee and Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, member of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity in 1999–2009

Lasse Lehtinen (Finland), writer, member of the European Parliament in 2004–2009

Markus Meckel (Germany), religious scientist and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the former German Democratic Republic from April to August 1990, member of the German Bundestag in 1990–2009 former freedom fighter, and the first and final democratic

Norman M. Naimark (United States of America), Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor in East European Studies at Standford University

Yakov M. Rabkin (Canada), Professor of History at Montreal University

Pavel Žacek (Czech Republic), social scientist, Director of the Institute for the Investigation of Totalitarian Regimes