[In the framework of Performing Revolution Festival]

After Communism: Achievement and Disillusionment since 1989
Presented by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and Austrian Cultural Forum

Don't miss this multi-day symposium that will bring together leading public intellectuals, scholars, politicians, dissidents and writers from both sides of the Atlantic to assess the global meaning of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the world.

Speakers include Adam Michnik, Alfred Gusenbaur, Archie Brown, Erhard Busek, Ira Katznelson, Katherine Vedery, Stephen Kotkin, Stephen Sestanovich, joining Vladimir Tismaneanu (Professor of Politics, University of Maryland), Horia-Roman Patapievici (Political Philosopher, President) & Mircea Mihaies (Vice-president), Romanian Cultural Institute, Paul Dragos Aligica (Political Scientist, Mercatus Center, George Mason University), Angelo Mitchievici (Romanian Novelist and Film Critic), and Vlad Muresan (Political Philosopher, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca).

Panels will explore the demise of communism, the nature of postcommunism, the legacy of dissent, the promise of democracy in the region, and the creation of narratives about the communist past.

The first day of the symposium will conclude with a special screening of Corneliu Porumboiu's celebrated film, 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, which will be introduced by film critic A.O. Scott from The New York Times.


SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM


Friday, February 26

2:00 pm: What Was Communism and Why Did It End?
Speakers will discuss the nature of communism as ideology, political system, economic system, social system, welfare state, and so on. Some reflections might seem obvious, but imaginative thinking about communism’s effect on social and intellectual life is encouraged. Then, participants will assess both the international and domestic sources of the collapse. The possible explanations run from Gorbachev, to economic roots, to legitimization crisis theory, to what Dan Chirot referred to as “moral rot.”  

Speakers:
Adam Michnik, Editor-in-Chief, Gazeta Wyborcza
Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Oxford University; Author, The Rise and Fall of Communism
Vlad Muresan, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

Moderator: Mircea Mihaies, Vice President, Romanian Cultural Institute


3:45 pm: What is Post-Communism and When Does it End?
What does it mean, across the worlds of politics, culture and society, to be “post-communist?” Social scientists have been keen to document the economic and political aspects of emergent democracy in the region, and aspects of that should certainly be addressed. However, it is also helpful to focus on post-communism as a condition. Are people “post-communist?” If so, what does that mean? At what point should we stop/have stopped referring to these states and peoples as post-communist? What characteristics from the communist era, or even the “post-communist” one need to disappear before we can say that a society is no longer post-communist? 

Speakers:
Katherine Verdery, Julien J. Studley Faculty Scholar and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, City University of New York
Paul Dragos Aligica, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
Slawomir Sierakowski, Founder and Editor, Krytyka Polityczna

Moderator: Monika Fabijanska, Director, Polish Cultural Institute


5:30 pm: The End of History?
The fall of communism gave rise to a set of beliefs, at least two of which will be discussed. The first was that, with the end of the Cold War, liberal democracy proved itself the best form of government and that no further political evolution is necessary. However, while dictatorship has been discredited, the EU and the US have relatively different models of democratic politics. Their differences beg the question whether further evolution is needed and, if so, in what direction? The second thesis was that the end of the Cold War proved that liberal capitalism was the best of all economic systems. The global economic crisis and the renationalization of sections of the economy call this into question. On the other hand, the spread of liberal democracy and free markets across the globe over the last 20 years, and the lack of coherent alternatives seems to support the “end of history” thesis.

Speakers:
Alfred Gusenbauer, Former Chancellor of Austria; Former Chief of Social Democratic Party of Austria
Michael Scammell, Professor of Creative Writing, Columbia University; Author, Koestler and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Stephen Sestanovich, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Affairs, Columbia University; George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Moderator: Andreas Stadler, Director, Austrian Cultural Forum


7:15 pm: Film Presentation

12:08 East of Bucharest (Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania 2006)
Introduction: A.O. Scott, Film Critic, The New York Times

A provincial television station decides that it’s going to produce a show on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the fall of the communist government, focusing on what transpired in that town at the exact time that Ceauşescu fell. Unhappily, the only two eyewitnesses the station can find are a hard-drinking history teacher and an elderly retiree who works as part-time Santa Claus. The show begins, and the two panel guests pour out their versions of what happened on Dec. 22, 1989. It doesn’t take long for viewers to start phoning in their own versions of that day, often taking the eye witnesses to task for what they think are outright distortions. History —who remembers, and how—is at the heart of Corneliu Porumboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest,” co-winner of the Camera D’Or (Best First Film) at 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Porumboiu cleverly captures how even recent historical events take on shape and meaning according to how they explain or justify the present. — Richard Pena, Program Director, Film Society of Lincoln Center (Screening courtesy of Palisades Tartan)


Saturday, February 27^th 

2:00 pm: The Legacy of Dissent
Dissidents are among the most discussed topics of the period of communist rule. The focus of this panel, then, should not to be on what they did, but what the lasting effects of their actions and words have been. How have they changed our thinking about social activism? What is their legacy, if any, in the sphere of politics? With the benefit of hindsight, how do we assess the role and importance of the so-called “grey zone?” Could it be that the dissidents’ moral example created the conditions for the development of the cynicism discussed in the following panel?  Or does the role of the dissidents under communism continue to provide some guideposts for morality in the public sphere?

Speakers:
Erhard Busek, Former Vice-Chancellor of Austria
Horia-Roman Patapievici, President, Romanian Cultural Institute
Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University

Moderator: Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Barnard College, Columbia University

3:45 pm: Unfulfilled Promises? Democracy and Disillusionment 
The first years after 1989 were filled with excitement and outpourings of profound belief in the fashioning of a truly new democratic politics. However, the results have been more mixed, with corruption, scandal and “normal politics” eroding people’s faith in the political system in many countries. Here speakers may wish to explore the relationship between the hopes and ideals of 1989 and the subsequent rise of disillusionment among segments of the population. Were the expectations placed on the rebirth of democracy too high? Or has democracy so taken root that publics now largely take it for granted?

Speakers:
Angelo Mitchievici, Writer; Faculty of Letters and Theology, Ovidius University of Constanta 
Elzbieta Matynia, Associate Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies, The New School for Social Research
Timothy Frye, Director, Harriman Institute; Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy, Columbia University

Moderator: Corina Suteu, Director, Romanian Cultural Institute


5:30 pm: Creating a Narrative about the Communist Past 
How do people from individual countries frame the communist era in relation to the rest of their nation’s past. Some simply write it off as an aberration brought by the Soviet Union, but others trace lines of continuity as well. Participants should also consider the broader narratives of European history. For decades, there was a Western European narrative (increasing prosperity and integration) and an Eastern European one (Stalinism, revisionism, decay, collapse). With the ever closer integration of the Eastern European states and peoples with their Western neighbors, has the time come for a truly “European” history of the twentieth century? Moreover, what role does the legacy of the Cold War have for narratives about communism?

Speakers:
Benjamin Barber, Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science Emeritus, Rutgers University; Distinguished Senior Fellow, DEMOS Institute
Stephen Kotkin, Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University
Vladimir Tismaneanu, Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland; Author, Fantasies of Salvation

Moderator: Timothy Frye, Director, Harriman Institute; Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy, Columbia University