51st Annual Conference of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution
Registration details and first draft of programme
Study Group on the Russian Revolution conference, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 6-8 January 2026
The first draft of the SGRR 2026 conference programme can be found below. Please note that it is almost certain to be revised in the coming weeks. Registration is now open for the conference. The conference fees are £50.00 to attend in person, and £20.00 to attend online. We strongly prefer in-person participation, as one of the great benefits of this conference is the opportunity to meet and socialise with fellow researchers in our specialised field. However, we do understand that there are many people who are quite unable to travel to Norwich, particularly given the current geopolitical situation, and we are keen to facilitate everyone’s participation. The in-person fee covers coffee and tea breaks, sandwich lunches, and an East European-themed reception and buffet.
As the SGRR’s own bank account is currently in the process of being changed, we have set up a temporary personal bank account to receive conference fees for this year only. We are able to accept both bank transfers and credit/debit card payments. Registration for the conference is a two-step process. If you wish to attend, please e-mail the UEA East Centre with your name and contact details on eastcentre.his@uea.ac.uk . To pay by credit or debit card, please visit the link https://revolut.me/matthiasn77 . To pay by bank transfer, please send the appropriate sum to: sort code 23-01-20, account number 43184559, beneficiary Matthias Neumann. Please note that these bank details are only valid for the SGRR 2026 conference and should not be used for any other remittances to the SGRR. If you have any difficulties with these payment methods, please contact Matthias on m.neumann@uea.ac.uk .
We have secured a small grant from BASEES to support the attendance of postgraduate students who are presenting at the SGRR and have no external funding. For further details on this or on any other matter relating to this conference, please contact us at UEA East Centre.
Please note that the programme remains subject to change as presenters learn of their teaching and other commitments for next year. We shall be posting updates onto the East Centre website as and when we have them. https://www.eastcentre-uea.org/
SGRR 2026 organisers: Francis King, Matthias Neumann.
Draft programme - subject to minor amendment
Tuesday 6 January
12.00 – 13.00: Registration, light lunch. Foyer area, Earlham Hall, UEA
13.00 – 14.45: Panel 1
Barbara Allen:- The Case of a Ukrainian Worker Oppositionist on the Eve of the Great Terror: P. S. Bykhatsky in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, 1934-35
Véronique Mickisch:- The Trotskyist Opposition at the Institute of Red Professors: the cases of Grigoriy Yakovin and Polina Vinogradskaya
Evgeni V. Pavlov:- ‘Lenin or Not Lenin’: The Erasure of Alexander Bogdanov’s Role in the Founding of Bolshevism
Lara Douds:- A Woman of ‘Inhuman Cruelty’: Varvara Yakovleva as Revolutionary, Chekist, Opppositionist and Commissar, 1905-1941
14.45 - 15.15: Break
15.15 – 17.00: Panel 2
James Rann:- Performances of Sex, Gender and Modernity in the Cultures of Early Soviet Uzbekistan
Irina Roldugina:- ‘Turn Me from a Woman to a Man’. Trans and Intersex People in the Early Soviet State
Pavel Vasilyev:- Industrial Vibration and Women’s Reproductive Health in Soviet Occupational Medicine, 1920s-1970s
17.00 – later: East Centre buffet and drinks reception
Wednesday 7 January
09.00 - 10.45: Panel 3
Alexander Morrison:- 1905-1907 in Russian Turkestan – A Colonial Revolution?
Il’ya Sedov:- Electoral blocs in the Moscow elections to the IV State Duma
Franziska Schedewie: - Travelling and corresponding. Nikolai F. Bunakov on Imperial Russia and political culture in the provinces and peripheries
10.45 - 11.15: Break
11.15 - 13.00: Panel 4
Pavlo Tokalenko:- Terrorism in the years of the First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) in the south of Ukraine
Michal Sadlowski:- The Ukrainian Question in the Political Thought of Pavel N. Miliukov during His Emigration (1918/1920-1943)
Éric Aunoble:- Socialists and Soldiers from February to October 1917 in Kharkov
13.00 - 14.00: Lunch
14.00 - 15.45: Panel 5
Harry Gorham:- The Theoretical Foundations of Soviet Military Doctrine
Sofya Anisimova:- British Military Missions in Russia: Structure and Effectiveness, 1914-1917
Alice Pate:- The Laboring Intelligentsia in 1917: a case study
Konstantin Tarasov:- Out of Service: Employers’ Narratives of Urban Servants in 1917
15.45 - 16.15: Break
16.15 - 18.00: SGRR AGM, followed by Round Table discussion: ‘Stalin's Rise to Power Reconsidered’.
Lara Douds, Christopher Read, James Harris
after 18.00: Conference dinner, venue TBC, Norwich
Thursday 8 January
09.00 - 10.45: Panel 6
Jolanta Mysiakowska:- Peace at All Costs? The Labour Party’s anti-war propaganda and the peace process in Eastern Europe (1918-1920)
Gabriela Dristaru:- Romania in the Shadow of the Russian Revolution: The Demonstration of Russian Soldiers in Iasi (1.5.17)
Gwendal Piégais:- The mutinies of the Russian brigades in Macedonia and their repression by the Armée d’Orient, 1917-1918
Alexandru-Cristian Voicu:- The Romaninan-Russian Dispute over Bessarabia. Cristian Racovski and the Bessarabian Question: Between Revolutionary Idealism and Soviet Diplomacy
10.45 - 11.15: Break
11.15 - 13.00: Panel 7
Scott Kenworthy:- Patriarch Tikhon: Rebuilding the Church in the Soviet Union, 1923-1925
Marie-Josée Lavallée:- Stalin’s Foreign Policy and the Austrian United Front Project
Roman Osharov:- Mining and Land Reform in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918-1921
13.00: Closing remarks