Late and Post-Communism in Eastern Europe

Research project
The project will explore the routine of the KGB’s work, as well as the mechanisms and instruments of social control that directly or indirectly affected “average” Soviet citizens in the course of everyday life. The focus is on the Soviet secret police in the period beginning with the end of the Brezhnev’s rule through Gorbachev’s perestroika until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Research Project
This project examines why Lviv emerged as a driving force of political and cultural transformation in the late Soviet period. Focusing on the years 1986–1994, it reconstructs how social mobilization, cultural self-assertion, and new forms of urban public life intertwined during perebudova. By offering a microhistorical perspective, the study sheds new light on the local dynamics that shaped the emergence of independent Ukraine.

PhD project
This project explores the intersections of art, spirituality, and altered states of consciousness in post-Soviet Ukraine. It examines how the discovery and use of psychedelic substances among artists of the Ukrainian New Wave in the 1990s shaped a unique aesthetic of transgression, introspection, and spiritual experimentation.

Research project
in the Leibniz-Professorinnen-Programm von Juliane Fürst „Nuclear Reaction on the Khreshchatyk: Ukrainian Society and its Path from Perebudova to Decoloniality, 1986-1994“
Was geschieht mit einem der bekanntesten Symbole der Sowjetunion, wenn das Imperium zerfällt? Das Projekt widmet sich dem legendären Pionierlager Artek auf der Krim – einem Ort, der über Jahrzehnte als Inbegriff sowjetischer Zukunftsversprechen galt. Hier sollten Kinder die sozialistische Gesellschaft von morgen bereits im Kleinen erleben.

PhD project
The double failure of Russian liberalism - after 1905 and after 1991 - calls for a differentiated historical explanation. Using selected actors from three age cohorts, it systematically examines how Russian liberals defined themselves, what ideas guided them and why they ultimately failed with their project of liberalizing the state and politics. 

Research project
in the Leibniz-Professorinnen-Programm von Juliane Fürst „Nuclear Reaction on the Khreshchatyk: Ukrainian Society and its Path from Perebudova to Decoloniality, 1986-1994“
Das Projekt rekonstruiert die intellektuelle Vorbereitung der polnisch-ukrainischen Annäherung im Exil, wie sie dann in den 1980er Jahren durch Solidarność und Perebudova (ukrainisch für Perestroika) auch innerhalb Polens und der Ukraine politisch wirksam wurde. Es analysiert, warum in den polnisch-ukrainischen Beziehungen ein Wandel gelang, der in den russisch-ukrainischen Beziehungen scheiterte. 

Verbundprojekt
im Leibniz-Professorinnen-Programm „Nuclear Reaction on the Khreshchatyk: Ukrainian Society and its Path from Perebudova to Decoloniality, 1986-1994“
Leitung: Juliane Fürst
Das Projekt geht der Frage nach wie aus einer sowjetischen Republik ein unabhängiger Staat – und aus „Sowjetbürger*innen“ eine ukrainische Gesellschaft wurde. Das fünfköpfige Team untersucht dazu konkrete Lebenswelten und Orte – von Sportverbänden über Ferienlager bis hin zu Städten wie Lwiv oder Kyjiw. Ziel des Projekts ist es, die Ukraine als eigenständigen historischen Erfahrungsraum sichtbar zu machen und neue Perspektiven auf das Ende der Sowjetunion zu eröffnen.

Research poject
as part of the Leibniz Women Professors Program by ZZF department head Juliane Fürst
This project analyses the path from perebudova (the Ukrainian word for perestroika) to decoloniality in the field of sport as an intriguing and enlightening prism through which to understand broader social and political changes on the way to Ukrainian independence. 
The project is a part of the Leibniz Women Professors Program by ZZF department head Juliane Fürst.

Bilateral Israeli-German cooperation project 
of the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (Jan C. Behrends), Tel Aviv University (Scott Ury) and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry (Semion Goldin) 
This project examines the public debates about the memory and image of “the Jews” in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. It asks what role the discussions in this region played in the collective memory and in the historical debates in the different periods: late communism (1980-1989), post-communism (1989-2004) and populist nationalism (2004-2020). 

PhD Project
part of the ERC Project “Perestroika from Below”
The project examines how the socio-political context of late-Soviet Leningrad prepared the ground for the monument protection activism revived by Perestroika.

PhD project
part of the ERC projekt “Perestroika from Below”
This project will examine Tengrism, a Nomadic Turko-Mongolic religion in Kazakhstan, during Perestroika. 

PhD project
This thesis posits the intersection of different study fields: Internet studies, Literary studies, Media studies, and cultural research. The main question of the research is, following Foucault, what is an author?

PhD project
part of the joint project "Adjustment and Radicalisation. Dynamics in Popular Culture(s) in Pre-War Eastern Europe
Through analysis of comic routines and performances of the most influential Soviet and post-Soviet Russian comedians, the PhD project aims to trace the continuity and breaks in the evolution of Russian language verbal comedy over the past 80 years.

The Ukrainian SSR is considered as one of the main centres of fashion development in the Soviet Union. The project is devoted to a thorough exploration of the history of Ukrainian Soviet fashion in the context of ideology and everyday life during the Cold War.

Research project
of the ERC project "Perestroika from Below"
The research project will take a look at the transformation of the Soviet museum system through the lens of different former Soviet republics: Estonia, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Russia.

PhD project
of the ERC project "Perestroika from Below"
The project examines the grassroots social composition of the perestoika-era crime boom in Ukraine, paying particular attention to its effects on society, identity and politics.

Project
Project duration: December 2022 - November 2025
Project funding: HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03-01 - Twinning
Project leader: Vilnius University in close collaboration with: Lund University, C²DH, ZZF Potsdam
Project leader at ZZF: Dr. Juliane Fürst
Project coordinator at the ZZF: Annette Steyn (Dora Komnenovic until 31.12.2024)
The aim of the joint project is to research the theory and practice of citizen participation in the co-production and communication of the past in the digital age. Juliane Fürst is the project leader at the ZZF.

ERC Research project (Joint project)
Funded by the European Union
Juliane Fürst leads since August 2022 a team of two post-doctoral fellows and two doctoral students, 
Historiography has assigned a very particular understanding to the perestroika project: it is perceived as enacted from above, hinging on the persona of Gorbachev, and a phenomenon to which people reacted rather than forced action upon. This project will instead look at “perestroika from below”.

Research project
of the ERC project „Perestroika from Below“
The project will examine a history of the independent peace movement in the USSR in the late 1970s – 1980s and the global backgrounds of its activity. 

Research project
of the Interdisciplinary Research Network "Legacies of Communism? 
The project is based on the hypothesis of existing continuities from the Soviet to today’s Russian society. This seems to be especially true for the continuing existence of elites and networks. This assumption will be examined using the Russian museum system and museum professionals as a field of research. The project is part of the Interdisciplinary Research Network Legacies of Communism? 

Interdisciplinary research network 
Funded by a SAW-grant of the Leibniz Association 
Coordination: Jan Claas Behrends, Juliane Fürst and Corinna Kuhr-Korolev 
The research network with partners in six countries will be hosted by the ZZF in Potsdam. It will focus on historical research of the political and social development of Eastern Europe and the former USSR from late socialism to post-communism.

PhD project
of the Interdisciplinary Research Network "Legacies of Communism?"
To this day, the “Colleges of Advanced Studies” are considered the playground of the young elite in Hungary. The project explores the role of the colleges in the transition from late socialism to democracy.

The project investigates the domestic security functions, methods and practices of the KGB in the last decades of its existence. It will explore the routine of the KGB’s work, as well as the mechanisms and instruments of social control that directly or indirectly affected “average” Soviet citizens in the course of everyday life.