News
Wednesday 6 April 2022
Seminar "Caucasus in the Past and Present (Society, Politics, Economy, and Culture)"
The 63rd meeting of the seminar was held on the 6th of April, 2022. Zoya Makhmudova, candidate of history, associate professor of MSU History Faculty, made a report: “On Caucasian Volumes of the Series “Peoples of the World” of the USSR Economics Institute as a Soviet Ethnopolitical Project”.
The report “On Caucasian Volumes of the Series “Peoples of the World” of the USSR Economics Institute as a Soviet Ethnopolitical Project” examined the preparation history of the Caucasian volumes of the “Peoples of the World” series by the USSR Ethnography Institute.
The presentation was based on archival primary sources being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The idea of creating a generalizing ethnographic work dedicated to the USSR peoples originated in the depths of the People's Commissariat for Nationalities in the early 1920’s. Subsequently, the project received a new development within the framework of the Ethnography Institute of the USSR Sciences Academy established in 1933 in Leningrad. The Institute's Research Plan for the year 1936 included the volumes’ preparation of the collection "Peoples of the USSR".
In the early 1940’s the publication concept was revised (no doubt taking into account the possible results of the Second World War) and the Ethnography Institute staff began to prepare the series "Peoples of the World".
Since the autumn of the year 2015 the Study Center of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Ural-Volga region has been holding a monthly scientific and practical seminar named "The Caucasus in the Past and Present (Society, Politics, Economics, and Culture)". It had been conceived as a platform for discussing the Caucasian studies issues and as an important section not only of the world Oriental studies, but also of Russian history, social anthropology, economics, linguistics, political science, and cultural studies. Its purpose was to discuss the issues of modern Caucasian studies and to establish closer scientific contacts among region specialists.
Since the year 2022 the seminar meetings have been held at the Institute Oriental Studies and the Economics Institute.
62 meetings have been held to date at which many authoritative experts have spoken - historians, ethnographers, political scientists, sociologists, economists, art historians, and linguists. Representatives of various academic institutions and universities of Russia, countries of near and far abroad have taken part in the event.