Russia in 'German' Memories: Stepun, Gollwitzer, Leonhard, Kopelev — Report by Holger Kusse

On June 14, 2021, within the framework of the seminar 'West and East: Universalism of Culture'‎, a report was made by the leading research fellow of the IL for the Study of Russian and European Intellectual Dialogue Professor Holger Kusse

After the Second World War in Germany there was a great interest in Russia and the Soviet Union. Partially this was a continuation of the fascination with Russian literature and music that began at the end of the 19th century, but in the post-war period, the desire to understand Russia and the political system of the Soviet Union was associated with this traditional interest. Especially popular were personal memories from the country on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The “German” memories in the lecture are those autobiographical publications that began to form ideas about Russia and the Soviet Union in Germany.
The report included a philosophical autobiography of the Russian philosopher Fyodor Stepun, who lived in Germany since 1922; the autobiography of the Russian publicist Lev Kopelev, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1981; the memoirs of the theologian Helmut Gollwitzer, dedicated to his captivity in the Soviet Union, and the memoirs of the political scientist Wolfgang Leonhard, who fled the GDR in 1949, introducing the reader to the life of a young foreign communist in the 1930s-1940s. in Soviet Union.

Watch the video of the workshop on YouTube.