From 16-19 June 2010 the Department of Music at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen will hold an International Symposium, made possible by financial support from the DFG, on “Composers in the Gulag under Stalin”. Since Perestroika and the opening of the archives, historical analysis and understanding of what happened in Soviet forced labour camps under Stalin has progressed a good deal. There is, however, still much research to be done, particularly regarding the musicological aspects of the subject. Although “Music in the Gulag” can be explored from several sides, musicologists take a special interest in the cultural activities of composers before, during and after their imprisonment. Research on Gulag prisoners from other vocational fields has shown to what extent both art and science were deprived of promising people by imprisonment, and how art and science could have blossomed if it had not been for the loss of such potential. Research on this subject is therefore an essential part of research on music in the Soviet Union as well as an important contribution to discussions about the Gulag and Soviet totalitarianism in general. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the conference aims to examine and establish the current state of knowledge, and to stimulate further investigation. The programme will be divided into three sections:

1. Before and after imprisonment – prevailing conditions for composers. Musical life in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1950s
2. During imprisonment – artists and intellectuals in the Gulag
3. Individual lives of imprisoned composers Academics working in this or another closely related field are invited to take an active part in our symposium.

Please send your paper proposals (not more than 300 words) to the following address by 30 September 2009: composers.in.the.gulag@uni-goettingen.de

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact the organisers:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Waczkat

Inna Klause M.A.