POSTPONED: Professor Charlotte Alston, Professor of History, Northumbria University

PLEASE NOTE: This Public Lecture has been postponed, due to the recent coronavirus (COVIC-19) outbreak. If you have registered for any this lecture, we will be in touch when a new date is confirmed.

Russian activists in exile 1890-1990: Representing Russia across generations and borders

Russia has long been a source of fear, fascination and inspiration for audiences and commentators in Western Europe and the USA. One consistent feature of the relationship between Russia and the West since the mid-nineteenth century, has been the presence of a vocal political emigration.

In the 1890s, Russian revolutionaries organised abroad against the Tsarist regime, In the 1920s, opponents of the early regime campaigned in foreign capitals. In the 1970s, authors of dissident literature arrived in Western Europe and the USA where both they and their work influenced understandings of Russia's past and future.

This lecture explores the strategies and arguments used across different generations of activists in different political contexts, and asks how ideas about Russia have been shaped, reshaped and challenged through these transnational connections. It asks why the messages that emigre activists have wanted to convey have often been so different from the lessons that western audiences have typically wanted to learn.

 Professor Charlotte Alson is Research Lead for History at Northumbria University. Prior to joining Northumbria in 2009, she held posts as Lecturer in History at the University of Ulster and as Research Assistant to the QEQM Professor of British History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.

Her research focuses on Russia's relations, both cultural and diplomatic, with the West. She is the author of books and articles on Russia's revolutions and civil war, the post-First World War peace settlements, and the international influence of Tolstoy's thought.

Refreshments will be available from 6pm with the lecture 6.30pm - 7.30pm.

To register your attendance, please complete the form below. For queries email nu.events@northumbria.ac.uk.