30/11/2022
film screening and discussion
The Empire’s Agony?
Discussion within the series From Putin to Stalin. Around the Invasion of Ukraine
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We invite you for the first debate within the series From Putin to Stalin. Around the Invasion of Ukraine: The Empire’s Agony? on 30 November 2022 at 18:00.
- “Russian history is one of continued territorial expansionism,” Zbigniew Brzeziński wrote in 1987. The present aggression against Ukraine, like the one against Georgia in 2008, shows that, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, the main vector of Russian history remains unchanged. But is the current invasion a sign of the empire’s strength or weakness? The defeats suffered by the Russian army at the hands of the Ukrainians, and Russia’s waning influence in Central Asia, would suggest the latter. So aren’t we witnessing yet another crisis of the empire – like the one in 1989–1992 – or perhaps even its ultimate demise? Is the assault on Ukraine a symptom of the empire’s agony?
- Panelists:
- Piotr Grochmalski, PhD, DSc, political scientist and journalist, author of Czeczenia. Rys prawdziwy [Chechnya. A true portrait] (1999) and editor of Klęska demokracji? Obszar byłego ZSRR [A failure of democracy? The post-Soviet area] (2010), among other publications
- Maciej Maciejowski, journalist, producer, and filmmaker, co-author of the documentary Casus Belli. Po co komu ta wojna? [Who needs this war for?]
- Krzysztof Strachota, head of the Turkey, Caucasus, and Central Asia Unit, Centre for Eastern Studies
- Debate will be accompanied by a screening of Maciej Maciejowski and Michał Orzechowski’s documentary film Casus Belli. Po co komu ta wojna? [Who needs this war for?] (2022)
- Moderator: Piotr Bernatowicz, PhD
