Host: Janine Funke
Guests: Corinna Kuhr-Korolev, Daria Ganzenko
Production: Tim Schleinitz


In the 4th episode of the mini-series "Fights for Freedom", the podcast turns to the imperial center to ask what happened when the Soviet system unravelled. 

The late 1980s and 1990s were years of transformation marked by reform and hope, but also crisis, social decline, and contested memory. While often described as a “collapse,” many Soviet structures and ways of thinking endured, shaping the new Russian state in ways still visible today. Understanding this era is key to making sense of Russia’s present and its ongoing war against Ukraine.

To explore the blurred lines between collapse and continuity, the episode brings together two historians from the Leibniz-Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam: Corinna Kuhr-Korolev and Daria Ganzenko. Together, they reveal how memory and culture shaped Russia’s passage from empire to post-Soviet statehood and how echoes of that transition still resonate today.  

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In the EUROPAST Podcast, we explore Europe's most pressing challenges of public history. We investigate the complex and contested spaces of public memory, memory activism and best practices for engaging the public in a dialogue about the past.

The podcast series is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union under the WIDERA programme (EUROPAST project, Grant Agreement No. 101079466). More: www.europast.vu.lt