Name: Who Narrates the Past? Teaching Russian and Soviet History Today
Start: 2025-04-11T14:00:00+03:00
End: 2025-04-11T17:30:00+03:00
Location: Tallinn University

Who Narrates the Past? Teaching Russian and Soviet History Today

Date and time:
April 11, 2025, at 14:00-17:30 (EEST)
Venues:
Panel discussion: Auditorium M225, Uus-Sadama 5, Tallinn University
Coffee break: Atrium, Uus-Sadama 5, Tallinn University
Movie screening: SuperNova Cinema (N-406), Narva mnt 27, 4th floor, Tallinn University
The event will also be streamed online.
The teaching of Russian and Soviet history is undergoing profound shifts in response to current political and social realities. This event, organised by Historians without Borders in Finland in cooperation with the Estonian History and Civics Teachers’ Association and Tallinn University, will examine the challenges of teaching Russia’s and the Soviet Union’s past in the current moment. As ideological control over history tightens in Russia, educators and historians face growing restrictions, censorship, and the urgent need for independent perspectives. What obstacles do educators face both inside and outside Russia? How do different national contexts shape the ways Russian and Soviet history are taught? The event will explore evolving methodologies, alternative formats for historical education, and the broader implications of teaching these histories today. It will conclude with a screening of War on Education, a documentary produced by EuroClio – European Association of History Educators, exposing Russia’s use of education as a tool of propaganda and the role of education in shaping the future of Ukraine.
Pre-registration for the event is required: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd53XnACQqc0vZNgkAmNi9mjurKvFTvdGZbGcFsfj5uQmxOuQ/viewform?usp=header
Program:
Please note that the panel discussion will take place at Auditorium M225 (Uus-Sadama 5, Tallinn University) and the movie screening will take place at the SuperNova Cinema, (Narva mnt 27, 4th floor, Tallinn University). The coffee break will take place at the Atrium (Uus-Sadama 5, Tallinn University).
14:00–14:15 Opening Remarks
14:15–16:00 Panel Discussion, Audience Q&A
- Jan Levchenko, PhD, Smolny Beyond Borders, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Natasha Konradova, Memorial (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2022), coordinator of the educational program Zukunft Memorial “A Person in History. (Post-)Soviet Experience.”
- Mare Oja, PhD, Lector, Tallinn University, School of Humanities

Moderator: Karsten Brüggemann, Professor of Political and Social History at the School of Humanities of Tallinn University
16:00–16:30 Coffee Break
16:30–17:30 Screening of "War on Education"
War on Education (2024), 56 min: https://www.waroneducation.org/
Director: Stefano Di Pietro
Spoken languages: English, Ukrainian, Russian. The movie will be subtitled in English.
The event is part of History in Exile: Dialogue on Russian Memory and History Politics in the Nordic and Baltic Countries, a project launched by Historians without Borders in Finland and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers: https://historianswithoutborders.fi/en/history-in-exile-project
Event page: https://historianswithoutborders.fi/en/tapahtumat/who-narrates-the-past-teaching-russian-and-soviet-history-today