News

On 7 June the Presidential Palace will host the 7th Conference of Intellectuals from Central, Eastern and Western European and Caucasian countries under the title “Soviet Culture: Failure of Soviet Modernization Project?”.

The Conference will bring together intellectuals from Armenia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Poland, Lithuania, France, Russia, Ukraine and Germany to discuss soviet cultural heritage and its impact in post-soviet countries.

Discussions will be moderated by Professor Leonidas Donskis, Director of the Political Science and Diplomacy Institute at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas.

The Conference will be attended by Stanislav Shushkievich, former chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus, Andrej Piontkovsky, prominent Russian political analyst, Andrej Riabov, political observer from the “Vek“ magazine and scholar-in-residence at the Moscow Carnegie Center, Francoise Thom, Professor at the University of Sorbonne and a prominent sovietologist, Kote Kubaneishvili, a popular contemporary Georgian poet, Lembit Ulfsak, a famous Estonian actor, and many others. 

Among the speakers at the forum will be Stepan Grigorian (Armenia), Dmitri Travin (Russia), Klaus Harer (Germany), Siarhej Shupa (Czech Republic), Oleg Soskin (Ukraine) and others.

The Conference is organized by the Political Science and Diplomacy Institute at Vytautas Magnus University together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the auspices of President Valdas Adamkus.

This Conference of Intellectuals is an ongoing project launched on 15 May 2005 when the first discussion (“Future of the European Union and Eastern Europe: Countries, Nations, Societies and People”) was held in Vilnius. In November 2005, intellectuals gathered again to discuss what unites and separates post-Soviet countries.

Two forums were convened in 2006: “Common Vision for Common Neighborhood” held simultaneously with Vilnius Conference 2006 and “Tolerance of Coercion and Success of Reforms” in December.

In May and December 2007, intellectuals gathered again to discuss on the topics “Change of Power in Post-Soviet Space: Dangerous Tranquility?” and “Privatization and Justice”, respectively.

Media representatives who plan to interview participants of the Conference should register by e-mail media@urm.lt or by phones 2362458 or 2362456.