Friday 4 May
Session 1: Post 1918 geopolitics

09.30 Registration & Friday meal reservations

10.00-11.15 Roundtable": Stalin’s control of Eastern Europe "

Chair: Jerome aan de Wiel, UCC

1. "Michael Hannigan: "How Stalin conquered Poland, the rise of the Polish Workers (Communist) Party.
2. "Ioan Bodnar: "Romanian Propaganda against Russia in Bessarabia and Bukovina during the Second World War" "
3. "Bozena Cierlik: "Soviet foreign policy towards East Central Europe 1944-1948
4. "Balázs Apor: "Exporting Charisma: Stalinist Leader Cults in the Soviet Bloc

11.15 Coffee Break

11.45-13.00 Roundtable": Military intervention "

Chair: David Fitzgerald, UCC

1. "Steven Balbirnie:" “Intervention in Northern Russia, 1918-1919: The International Element”
2. "Jonathan Murphy: "‘A Soviet friendship that knows no bounds:’ The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia
3. "Francesca Brufani:" The Cold War and the case of the “little Berlin”of Gorizia: exploring the longest-lived dividing wall in Europe
4. "Katrin Van Cant & Idesbald Goddeeris:" Central European memories of Russia after the Cold War

13.00-14.00 Lunch

"Session 2: Cultural & intellectual history"

" "

14.15-15.45 Roundtable: "Cultural history from Enlightenment to Interwar"

Chair: Geoff Roberts, UCC

1. "Andrej Riazhev: "The Constantinople Orthodox Patriarchate and the papacy in the diplomacy of Russian "enlightened absolutism" in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe in the second half of the XVIIIth century

2. "Richard McMahon:" Mongoloid Slavs: Images of the east in nineteenth and early-twentieth century race science

3. "Sergey Mikhalchenko:" Interethnic relations in Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries (from the unpublished memoirs of E. Spektorsky)

4. "Rayla Tadjimatova:" Re-evaluating Vakhtangov's legacy

15.45-17.00 Panel: "The Transfer of Soviet Knowledge to Central Europe --And Beyond – During the Communist period 1948-1990"

Chair: Valentina Fava, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

1. "Doubravka Olšáková:" Making Science Popular: Central-European „Daughter“ Societies of the All-Union Society for Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge and the Soviet Concept of Popularisation of Sciences in Central Europe after 1948

2. "Ludek Vacin:" How to Preserve the Body of an Allied Leader: The Export of Soviet Embalming Expertise to Czechoslovakia

1. "Isabel Izquierdo: "Attracting Soviet Scientists to Mexican Universities

17.00-18.30 Guest Speaker: ‘Moscow and the Changing “Eastern Europe”, from Gorbachev to Putin: Withdrawal and Resurgence?’ "Peter Duncan", Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Russian Politics and Society at UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Chaired by Geoff Roberts, held at the "Boole Lecture Theatre 2."

19.30 "Conference Meal:" Stir Restaurant, Maldron Hotel, 1 John Redmond Street Shandon, Cork +353 (0)21 4529200 "NB Please reserve a place at the IARCEES desk on Friday morning. €18"

"Saturday 5 May "

"Session 3: South-Eastern Europe"

10.00-11.15 Roundtable: "Black Sea Geopolitics"

Chair: Richard McMahon, UCC

1. "Emanuel Plopeanu: "Unexpected failures in the South: The USSR and Turkey (1939-1946)
2. "Mioara Anton: "The battle for the sea: Soviet strategies in the Black Sea region (1939-1947)
3. "Alexandra Gerota: "Soviet geopolitics in East-central Europe and their consequences for today's European foreign policy: the case of the Republic of Moldova and the Transdnistrian conflict
4. "Creanga Claudiu: "Russia’s foreign policy towards Moldova

11.15 Coffee Break

11.45-13.00 Panel": Romania and the Soviet Union"

Chair: James Ryan, Warwick University

1. "Silviu Miloiu: "Romanian policy towards the Soviet Union at a crossroads (1932-1936) and Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu’s concept of accomplished idealism
2. "Cezar Stanciu: "The Advent of National Interest: Romanian Opposition to Soviet Plans for Communist Bloc Reform (1960-1964)
3. "Elena Dragomir: "Balancing with China against the USSR. Romania’s opposition to CMEA integration, 1962-1963

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.00-14.30 IARCEES AGM

"Session 4: Eastern Europe since 1980"

14.45-16.00 Roundtable: "Energy Relations"

Chair: Jonathan Murphy, UCC 1. "Bai-Ku Wei: "Energy Relations between Russia and the Near Abroad:Comparative Studies of Conflicting and Cooperative Models

2. "Evan Thompson:" The changing energy dynamics in the Baltic region: Gazprom’s loosening stranglehold?

3. "Paolo Sorbello & Ludovico Grandi:" From Concentration to Competition:The Struggle for Power between the Kremlin and Gazprom through the Study of TNK-BP and South Stream

4. "Cosmin Popa:" Marketing and geopolitics in Russia’s gas trade in Central and Eastern Europe

16.00-17.00 Panel: "Poland"

Chair: Gabriel Doherty, UCC

1. "Patryk Pleskot:" Defining the Unknown: The Polish transformation of 1989 in the political discourse of the Soviet, Western and Polish authorities and of Solidarity.

2. "George B. Soroka:" Between Katyń and Smolensk: Polish-Russian Political Discourse and the Kaczyński Presidency (2005-2010)

17.00 Concluding remarks

*Panels*: Paper presentations of 20 minutes, followed by 15 minutes for discussion at the end. *Roundtables*: Paper presentations of 15 minutes,followed by 15 minutes for discussion at the end.

*Venue* UCC Campus, O'Rahily Building, ORB 156

*Abstracts*: available at www.iarcees.org