LECTURE – Intellectuals Analyzing the Soviet Legacy in Post-Soviet-Armenia, May 2, 2013

Publish Date: Apr 30, 2013

Intellectuals Analyzing the Soviet Legacy in Post-Soviet-Armenia

Aghasi Tadevosyan

Cosponsored by the Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan-Dearborn
and the AGBU Alex & Marie Manoogian School

Thursday, 7:30 PM
May 2, 2013
Multipurpose Room
AGBU Alex & Marie Manoogian School
22001 Northwestern Highway.
Southfield, MI 48075, USA

Armenia is in transition from Soviet socialism to liberal democratic capitalism. After more than 20 years of independence, one of the important issues for the success of this transition remains the issue of Armenia’s Soviet legacy. There are different opinions among the social groups of the Republic of Armenia concerning this legacy. Some people consider the Soviet era as a positive turn for the Armenian nation. But during the last 5 years, especially after the presidential election of 2008 and the subsequent violent crackdown of March 1st, public opinion has changed significantly.

There is a new assumption that the sovietization of Armenia could have halted the development of capitalism in the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, one of the widely debated themes in Armenia is the problem of Russian colonialism and its consequences. Today, Soviet totalitarianism and the sovietization of Armenia are viewed as an advancement of Russian colonialism. One of the suggested ways for overcoming the post-Soviet legacy of Russian colonialism is the formation of postcolonial discourse in Armenian civil society. This approach will assist various social groups in a reevaluation of the old approaches and to find new ways of transition and development.

Aghasi Tadevosyan was born in 1966 in Armenia. He graduated from the Department of History of Yerevan State University in 1991. In 1995, he obtained a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology. His main research interests are social changes, cultural transition, value transformation, modernization, and migration processes of post-Soviet Armenia.

He has authored or co-authored 11 monographs and more than 40 scientific articles published in the Armenian, English and Russian languages. He is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the Republic of Armenia, an Associate Professor at Yerevan State University, and currently a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley.

Light refreshments will be served.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn does not necessarily endorse the speaker’s views.

Armenian Research Center
University of Michigan-Dearborn
4901 Evergreen Rd.
Dearborn, MI 48128-2406

Similar Opportunities


Host Countries

United States

Event Types

Lecture