Seminar with Alexandra Polivanova from Memorial, One of This Year’s Nobel Peace Prize Winners

The Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and the Stockholm School of Economics are proud to welcome Alexandra Polivanova from the Russian civil rights organization Memorial for a seminar discussion. Michael Sohlman, former Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation, will introduce her presentation.

About the Event

One of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners is the Russian civil society organization Memorial, founded in 1987. According to the prize motivation they have “for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy”. In 2016, the authorities declared Memorial to be a foreign agent, and in 2021 the Russian Supreme Court ruled that Memorial was to be liquidated. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, the authorities declared Memorial to be illegal and took over their offices.

About the Speaker

Aleksandra Polivanova, a Member of the Board of International Memorial, will talk about the work of Memorial both from its historical perspective and in the current restrictive environment.  Born in Moscow, she has studied Nordic and Russian literature and history as well as psychology in Russia, Sweden and the USA. She has also worked as a translator from Swedish, and as a project manager in the cultural field at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. She has curated a number of educational programmes in Moscow for young people in connection with various festivals, she was the writer and director of the documentary theatre project “Grandchildren: The Second Act” based on interviews with grandchildren of perpetrators of the Stalin era. Since 2013, she has been in charge of Memorial’s research and education project “Moscow: A Topography of Terror”.

Registration

Please follow the link to join the seminar online: Register via this link here>>

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