FORUM SERIES “SOFIA DIALOGUES”
14th Anniversary of the forum (1996-2009)
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
honouring Claude Lefort
The Totalitarianisms of the 20th Century in Comparative Perspective Do New Realities Challenge Traditional Conceptions?
November 28 – 29, 2009
Sofia, Hotel “Arena di Serdica”
PROGRAMME
Saturday, November 28, 2009
9.30-10.00 Opening of the conference: Prof. Ivaylo Znepolski – Head of the Institute for Studies of the Recent Past and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société (MSHS)
(Due to health problems Claude Lefort is not able to attend the conference. His opening address will be presented to the audience.)
Thematic Session: TOTALITARIANISM AND TOTALITARIAN THEORY: A PARALEL START
Moderator: Maurice Aymard
10.00-10.30 Antonio Elorza (Madrid) – Totalitarianism and Totalism
10.30-11.00 Bernard Bruneteau (Grenoble) – Towards the Origins of the Totalitarian Theory: the Anticipations of the 30-ies
11.00-11.30 Discussion
11.30-12.00 Nikita Petrov (Moscow) – Soviet KGB Archives in the Contemporary Political Struggle
12.00-12.30 Stephane Courtois (Paris) – The Opening of the Communist Archives and the Concept of Totalitarianism
12.30-13.00 Discussion
13.00-14.30 Lunch
Thematic Session: THE TOTALITARIANISMS IN EASTERN EUROPE AFTER THE DEATH OF STALIN (Part I)
Moderator: Mark Kramer
14.30-15.00 Ivaylo Znepolski (Sofia) – “Real Socialism” – A Challenge to Totalitarian Theory?
15.00-15.30 Ulf Brunnbauer (Regensburg) – “Everyone believes the state does everything for him/her”. Notes on State-Society Relations in Communist Bulgaria
15.30-16.00 Thomas Lindenberger (Vienna) – Is the State Absorbing Society or Society Absorbing the State? Everyday Life under East German Dictatorship
16.00-16.30 Discussion
16.30-17.00 Coffee Break
17.00-17.30 Ian Holzer (Prague) – The Definitions of Totalitarianism in Accordance to the Czechoslovak/Czech Situation
17.30-18.00 Victor Neumann (Timishoara) – The Concept of Totalitarianism in the Romanian Social-Political Discourses
18.00-18.30 Discussion
20.00 Dinner hosted by His Excellency Etienne de Poncins, Ambassador of France to Bulgaria
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thematic Session: THE WAYS OF DE-TOTALITARIZATION
Moderator: Hristo Todorov
9.30-10.00 Pierre Hassner (Paris) – Is Totalitarianism Dead?
10.00-10.30 Dariusz Stola (Warsaw) – The Communist Regime as a Process: ‘People’s Poland’: from Imitation to De-totalitarization
10.30-11.00 Discussion
11.00-11.30 Coffee break
11.30-12.00 Maurice Aymard (Paris) – The End of Fascism and the De-totalitarization of the Italian Communist Party
12.00-12.30 Nikos Marantzidis (Thessalonica) – What happened to Greece in the Context of Eastern Europe and the Balkans during the 50-ies
12.30-13.00 Discussion
13.00-14.30 Lunch
Thematic Session: THE TOTALITARIANISMS IN EASTERN EUROPE AFTER THE DEATH OF STALIN (Part II)
Moderator: Ulf Brunnbauer
14.30-15.00 Mark Kramer (Harvard) – Stalin and the Spread of Soviet-style Systems to Eastern Europe in the mid- to late 1940s.
15.00-15.30 Adam Takacs (Budapest) – The Totalitarianism as Atmosphere: Morality and Mentality under the Kádár Regime in Hungary
15.30-16.00 Discussion
16.00-16.30 Coffee break
16.30-17.00 Hristo Todorov (Sofia) – “Neither heard nor understood”: Some Aspects of Public Communication in Bulgaria during the 80-iest
17.00-17.30 Alexander Kiossev (Sofia) – Crimes against Everyday Life: Approaching the Patho-Anthropology of Communism
17.30-18.00 Stilian Yotov (Sofia – Frankfurt onМein)
18.00-18.30 Discussion
18.30-19.00 Concluding words
20.00 Reception
The conference was made possible thanks to the financial support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CEE Trust Bulgaria, Open Society Institute, the French Cultural Institute in Sofia and Goethe Institute in Sofia.