Correcting Mistakes

"In 1917, I was thirteen and a half years old. At first, no one really understood anything. We watched everything like a spectacle from the windows of our house. All these marches of regiments, the soldiers heading towards the Duma…

There was a sense of confusion and uncertainty about what would happen next, and a hope that somehow life would return to its previous course. Of course, we had no idea that an abyss had opened," — Arkady Petrovich Stolypin, son of Pyotr Stolypin.

In the late 1960s, dozens of interviews with White émigrés were recorded at the initiative of Radio Liberty. They shared memories of their childhood, the First World War, and the Civil War, talked about life after the October Revolution, and, of course, how their emigration happened.

In 2020, Columbia University released this archive of recordings to the public. Next Monday, we will host an event in our space where we will listen to excerpts from these stories along with stories from our own time. We will hear voices from the countries of White emigration, the USSR, Russia, and Belarus. What lessons from the 20th century have we failed to learn, and are now revisiting in the 21st century? Where and how can these voices be useful?

The event will be led by migration researcher Ekaterina Chigaleychik.

Please bring a phone and headphones to participate.