Event Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026
The concept of cultural resistance has become integral to sociological, political, and cultural studies. Emerging after the “youth revolutions” of the late 1960s (the “long year 1968”), this concept encompasses practices, artistic works, and initiatives aimed at revising or deconstructing established social hierarchies, challenging hegemonic “common sense” and dominant tastes, and confronting neo-fascist and right-wing populist movements as sociocultural forces.
Cultural resistance creates a unified framework for understanding both the politicization of cultural practices (poetry readings, exhibitions, publications) and the aestheticization of political actions (performative political speech, political movements developing subcultural characteristics). While this concept was initially developed through examples from Western states and anti-colonial movements of the second part of the 20th century, it has only recently been applied to earlier historical periods. Participants across these events will investigate how this concept illuminates the social and cultural history of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet states, while weighing the prospects and limitations of such a framework.
Online Workshop Program:
10:00 – 10:50
Elizaveta Zhdankova (University of Hamburg). The Movie Theater as a Contested Space: Practices of Cultural Resistance in Urban Film Exhibition during the NEP Era.
Discussant: Kristina Tanis
10:50 – 11:40
Dmitry Biryukov (UCLA). “Intellectual Resistance to Militarist Discourses: Semyon Frank, Zinaida Gippius, and Modern Echoes”
Discussant: Randall A. Poole (Professor of Intellectual History at the College of St. Scholastica, Northwestern University; Co-director of the Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought; Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University School of Law)
11:40 – 11:50 | Coffee Break
11:50 – 12:40
Eva Smirnova (University of Bielefeld). “Becoming the Soviet Worker: Between Dominant Discourse and Everyday Life, 1920s-1930s.”
Discussant: Donald Filtzer (Professor Emeritus of Russian History at the University of East London, UK)
12:40 – 13:30
Valeriy Zolotukhin (Ruhr University, Bochum). “Reinventing People’s Theater after the October Revolution: Between Agitation and Resistance”
Discussant: Robyn M. Jensen (Assistant Teaching Professor, University of California, Berkeley)
Email dkamilova28@amherst.edu for the Zoom link. Please state your background in the email.