On the Ways of Comprehension of the Civil War in Russia: Key Problems and Historical Memory

Abstract

This article describes the all-Russian scientific conference “International Intervention and Civil War in Russia and the Russian North: key problems, historical memory, and lessons of history”, held in Arkhangelsk, September 10–11, 2020. Co-organizers of the conference were the Russian Military-Historical Society and its Arkhangelsk branch, the Government of the Arkhangelsk Region, the M. V. Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University , and the Association of the Russian Civil War Scholars. Conference sponsors were the Russian Military- Historical Society and the Government of the Arkhangelsk Region. Established and younger scholars from 14 regions of Russia, as well as from Ukraine and Norway, took part in the conference and its proceedings. Conference participators considered the key problems of genesis, origins, and causes for the Russian Civil War, its modern conceptualization, the role of international intervention in Russia and the Russian North, results, consequences, and historical lessons of this war. Special attention was given to preparing of Volume XII (in two books), Civil War in Russia, 1917–1922, of the 20-volume academic series History of Russia and problems of historical and cultural memory of the Russian Civil War. Four sections and three roundtables considered questions of the dialectical relationship of international intervention and Civil War in Russia and the Russian North; of international, national, regional, and local dimensions of the Civil War; and of the individual at war. Conference participators pointed out the necessity of responsible, competent, and objective historical studies of the Russian Civil War, an attitude of care towards existing monuments and memorials, and strict examination and scientific expertise of new memorial projects devoted to this war.