Vladimir Ryzhkovskyi will talk about the possibility of activating postcolonial/decolonial and anti-racist criticism as tools for looking at the global-colonial genealogy of Eastern-European, “second-world” modernity. Although it is theoretically based on the concept of “Soviet Occidentalism” that Ryzhkovskyi is currently developing in his scientific-historical work, the lecture – as suggested by the title reference to the famous autobiographical novel by Vladimir Nabokov – is conceived above all as a “first-person speech” and research the intersection between personal memory (or what we consider personal) and socio-political events and frameworks.

Born in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, Vladimir Ryzhkovskyi studied Russian, Soviet, and East European history in Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. He received his doctorate from Georgetown University in the USA, and in his research work he is engaged in researching the analytical potential and applicability of postcolonial theory to Russian imperial and Soviet history.