From Lenin to Putin, research on the history of Russia

(ANSA) - WARSAW, 09 GIU - A research on the history of Russia and its future: the seminar starting from the centenary of Lenin's death and ending with Putin's invasion of Ukraine will see the participation of historians from five countries (Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, Poland) on June 11th in Warsaw. During the meeting the irishman James Ryan of Cardiff University, Renata Gravina of La Sapienza University, Andrejs Gusachenko of the University of Lithuania, Alexei Vasiliev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Michal Patryk Sadlowski of Warsaw University will try "to assess the research on Russia in the West because Lenin was undoubtedly one of those politicians who radically influenced the destiny of Russia, Europe and the world".
    "The consequences of this policy - explains Sadlowski - are particularly visible after the collapse of the USSR. Since the end of the Soviet era, in fact, the states founded on the Soviet ruins are still constructing their own identity and looking for ways to consolidate their sovereignty. History, especially the history of Russia, has played and still plays a very important role in these processes. Proof of this is the invasion of Ukraine, justified by the Russian authorities with historical arguments'. Based on this awareness, the seminar is an attempt for Western science to respond to the historical doubts posed by current events.
    According to historian Gravina, who will discuss the topic of the myth of the USSR in Italy, 'although Leninism does not represent a particularly vivid legacy in Italian society and public opinion, the history of Italian communism and the party's conflictual relationship with Marxism-Leninism, represent the interpretative figure of the parabola of the Italian republic, from its formation to the end of the First Republic'.
    The event is organised by the Research Centre on Russian Statehood and the Department of Administrative History of the Faculty of Law, University of Warsaw. (ANSA).