Axe 2 - Imperial, post-imperial and post-Soviet societies

Responsible: Julien Vercueil

The projects of the "Imperial, post-imperial and post-Soviet societies" axis draw on history, political science and economic analysis to propose problematized approaches to recent or current transformations in Medieval and Eastern Europe.

Two main orientations structure this axis:

  • "On the one hand, historical approaches that focus on population movements - conflict-related migrations, forced displacements, which interact with certain migration policies of Western countries -,the notion of the refugee in the first 20th century (2.4) and consequent urban transformations (2.3), and the socio-political recompositions of the Communist period (2.5), in Central Europe, but also continue to examine the economic and institutional changes that have taken place in the region since the collapse of the socialist bloc (2.6);
  • On the other hand, the analysis of major socio-political and economic transformations that seem to be accelerating today in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia: contemporary and current developments in the Baltic space are studied in an approach that focuses on the circulation and transfer of ideas, knowledge and people, the urban transformations of the Soviet era and current populisms (2.3); the examination of Russia's current political and geopolitical role, notably through the representations that its political elites intend to project to the outside world (2.2); an analysis of the changes in Russia's economic trajectory, affected in particular by sanctions and counter-sanctions, and their effects on the entire post-Soviet space (2.1.); and a study of the current evolution of political elites in Central and Eastern Europe, integrating in particular - but not only - the influence of Russia (2.5)."

The work arising from this axis will complement that of other CREE axes and, to some extent, combine with them. This is the case, for example, of the "Crises and conflicts" axis - projects 3.2. and 3.4. -projects, in which several of our researchers are involved. It is also the case for the "Heritage and Legacy" axis - notably projects 1.1 and 1.2.

Projects:

  • Project 2.1. Economies in the post-Soviet space (Julien Vercueil)
  • Project 2.2. Russia and the world: new perspectives (Anne de Tinguy)
  • Project 2.3. Baltic spaces (Katerina Kesa, Eric Le Bourhis)
  • Project 2.4. Mobilities, migrations, transfers (Etienne Boisserie, Alisa Menshykova)
  • Project 2.5. Social history of politics in the communist and post-communist periods in Central and Eastern Europe: national elites, transnational influences (Irina Gridan)
  • Project 2.6. From reforms to economic and social transformations in Central and Eastern European countries (Assen Slim, Julien Vercueil)

Project 2.1. Economies in the post-Soviet space

Responsible : Julien Vercueil

This project intends to continue the analysis carried out since 2011 of the trajectories of economies in the post-Soviet space, particularly Russia.

A new context has been created in the region by economic and technological sanctions and counter-sanctions (2014-2018). This is particularly the case in Russia: compared to its initial formulation in 2007, the "2020 strategy" has undergone significant inflections, as evidenced by developments in economic policy (both cyclical and structural). Russia's economic and political relations with its neighbors, too.

The main aim of this project is to study the consequences of these changes on socio-economic interactions in the post-Soviet space, from the dual perspective of public policies and private strategies. By way of illustration, and without claiming to describe all the themes that may be covered, the problematic relationship between formal institutional integration and concrete economic integration on the ground, as well as energy relations between Russia and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which were already the subject of analysis during the previous four-year period, will continue to be monitored and analyzed. We will add a dimension linked to the reactions observed in the countries of the region to the infrastructure development projects carried out by China as part of the New Silk Roads.

Researchers associated with the project: Arman Ahunbaev (Strategic and Industrial Research Department, Eurasian Development Bank, Almaty), Eléonore Nantas (CREE doctoral student), Roman Medvedev (CREE doctoral student), Anton Kravtchenko (CREE doctoral student), David Teurtrie (CUF Saint Petersburg and CREE), Céline Bayou (CREE associate researcher), Pascal Grouiez (Ladyss, Université Paris-Diderot), Jean Radvanyi (CREE), Michele Brunelli (University of Bergamo), Xavier Richet (EA "Intégration et Coopération dans l'Espace Européen", ICEE, Université Sorbonne nouvelle), Philippe Cadène (Ladyss, Université Paris-Diderot), Nikolay Nenovsky (CRIISEA, Université de Picardie), Dimitri Kouvaline (Institute of National Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), Alexander Schirov (Institute of National Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), Alexander Bouzgaline (Lomonossov University, Moscow), Eric Magnin (Ladyss, Université Paris-Diderot), Petia Koleva (Ladyss, Université Paris-Diderot), Nathalie Rodet-Kroichvili (RECITS, Université de technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard), Jean-François Huchet (ASIEs, Inalco), Sophie Hohman (CREE), Assen Slim (CREE). 

Main cooperations: LADYSS (UdP-Paris X), Moscow State University, Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The BRICS seminar now carried by INALCO in collaboration with EHESS-FMSH (http://brics.hypotheses.org/), is organized within the framework of CREE and open to Master's and PhD students from INALCO, EHESS and UdP.

Planned research operations:

  • Book project on the structures of post-Soviet capitalisms;

  • Closed seminars and open study days;

  • Association of the regular "BRICs" research seminar (FMSH-EHESS) with CREE activities;

  • Individual and collective contributions to international colloquia (France, Russia, in particular), with the aim of leading to their publication as articles in special issues of academic journals or collective works;

  • Research articles in HCERES-referenced journals.

Key words: Regional economic institutions; regional economic integration; international sanctions; macroeconomic trajectories and public policies.

Project 2.2. Russia and the world: new perspectives

Responsible: Anne de Tinguy (CREE)

This project, which sets out to study Russia's relationship with the outside world since the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and the war in Syria. It focuses on:

2.2.1. Perceptions and representations of Russia in the world - their impact on international relations

Perceptions and representations are certainly not the only factors structuring the international strategies defined by states, but they do play an essential role. The purpose of this research is to study the case of Russia. The aim is to examine Moscow's strategies for shaping its self-image, and to question the impact of its policies. The aim is to examine the correlations between the way foreigners view Russia, Russia's "real" place in the world, and Russians' perceptions of their country's position in the international system. This research follows on from an earlier study of the post-Soviet space. The fruit of collective work carried out within a research group I had set up as part of CREE, it had led to a publication in Anatoli - Territoires, politique et sociétés (CNRS Editions, 2011).

2.2.2. Russian politics and international (re)configurations in the post-Soviet space

Since 1991, the reconfigurations of the post-Soviet space have been as strong as they have been complex. This region is no longer a unified, centralized and closed space. The 2014 annexation of Crimea, followed by Russian intervention in the Donbass, triggered a rupture between Russia and Ukraine that is the most serious blow to its cohesion since 1991. These events have had other repercussions that have profoundly altered Russia's and Ukraine's relationship with the outside world. The aim of this research is to identify and understand the major factors structuring the changes underway, the new paradigms being defined and the recompositions taking place. The strategy defined by Russia, which remains a major regional player, as well as the tools it puts at the service of its policy in this area, are at the heart of this research, which also pays particular attention to developments and mutations in Ukraine.

Research operations envisaged:

  • Organization of one or more seminars could mark the progress of this research;
  • Organization of doctoral seminars.

Project 2.3. Baltic spaces

Responsible for: Katerina Kesa (CREE), Eric Le Bourhis (CREE)

The Baltic Sea region straddles several cultural areas (Middle Europe, Northern Europe, Germanic world, Russian world) that are strongly rooted in humanities research traditions. However, despite the borders (religious, cultural, political, ideological) that have crossed and continue to cross this region, the sea is an obvious factor of contact and rapprochement. This project does not aim to create a new cultural area, but rather to question the unity and heterogeneity of the societies that border the Baltic Sea. It is a multi-disciplinary project, intended as a framework for interaction between different disciplines (geography, history, literature, political science...) in a geographical area whose contours are deliberately left vague (overlapping with regions in the following countries: Germany, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden). This project focuses on the contemporary and present eras (19th- 21st centuries), a period of disappearing and emerging empires, during which the political borders dividing this region have constantly changed.

The "Baltic Spaces" project is structured around three sub-projects:

2.3.1. Defining Baltic spaces

Responsible: Antoine Chalvin, Katerina Kesa, Eric Le Bourhis (CREE)

This project undertakes to define Baltic spaces through the relations and displacements that link their territories, political actors and inhabitants, with each other and with the rest of Europe and the world. It is multi-disciplinary, bringing together work in progress in the main disciplines of Axis 2 (history, political science, economics), as well as geography, literature and sociology. The focus is on the study of networks, transfers, circulations, migrations and so on. Created in 2016, this project extends the research seminar "Around the Baltic" organized at Sciences Po-CERI between 2013 and 2015.

Associated researchers: Nicolas Escach (Sciences-Po Rennes, Caen); Arnaud Serry (Université du Havre); Barbara Kunz (CERFA/IFRI); Céline Marangé (IRSEM); Amélie Zima (IRSEM/CERCEC); Fredrik Lars Stöcker (Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte, Universtät Wien); Andris Sprūds (Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs), Laurent Coumel (INALCO/CREE), Elena Kochetkova (HSE, Saint Petersburg), Irina Tcherneva (CERCEC), Harri Veivo (University of Caen), Vincent Dautancourt (University of Tartu), Juliette Denis (CERCEC) ; Yoann Aucante (CESPRA-EHESS), Una Bergmane (The London School of Economics and Political Science), Julien Gueslin (La contemporaine).

Main collaborations: Sciences-Po Rennes, Campus de Caen - Pôle Europe du Nord, UMR/Idées - Université du Havre, IRSEM, CERFA/IFRI, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES), University of Uppsala, Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA), University of Tartu, University of Tallinn, CERCEC-EHESS, La contemporaine.

Achievements:

  • Multidisciplinary seminar (PhD, Masters and research) "Baltic Spaces". Within the framework of a broad annual theme, the seminar is open to less frequently addressed topics, without any hierarchy of research objects, disciplines or working scales. The annual themes selected are: in 2018-2019 "Regionalism in the Baltic Space: Networks, cooperation, integration, circulation, dissemination of ideas and practices", in 2019-2020 "Circulations and transfers in the Baltic Space: ideas, practices, texts[1]", in 2020-2021, "Migrations, exile and diaspora" (to be confirmed).

  • Annual study day for doctoral and master's students in the humanities and social sciences working on societies in the wider Baltic region (INALCO/CREE and other universities). The first JE takes place on December 13, 2019 and brings together seven young researchers from universities (Toulouse Jean Jaurès, ENS, EHESS, Paris-Diderot, Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin, INALCO, Université du Québec à Montréal; Université de Namur (Belgium) and Université Paris-Est / IRSEM-DGRIS).

  • Publication in December 2019 of the thematic issue 133-134 "La question balte 1939-1989" of the journal Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps (co-edited by Eric Le Bourhis) on the unification of the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) through the German-Soviet Pact and its consequences.

  • Publication (scheduled for late 2020) of a dossier devoted to the "Baltic Space at a time of identity-based retrenchment" (co-edited by Nicolas Escach and Katerina Kesa) in the multidisciplinary journal Connexe, les Espace(s) postcommunistes en question. This publication follows the conference "The Baltic region in search of its identity" (September 15, 2017) as well as a whole series of seminars organized between 2016-2017 at CREE on questions of identity in the Baltic space.

[1] 2019-2020 program: http://www.inalco.fr/evenement/seminaire-recherche-espace-baltique

2.3.2. Populisms, media and networks in the countries of the Baltic region: circulation of ideas and political practices

Responsible: Katerina Kesa

In the countries of the Baltic area, as elsewhere in Europe, far-right populist movements have made significant inroads in recent years. Their growing popularity in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Poland is linked, among other things, to feelings of frustration caused by certain phenomena of globalization, such as inequality. It manifests itself in a rejection of the Other/Stranger, in identitarian withdrawal and in a growing distrust of national and European institutions and elites on the part of some of the region's populations. Social networks have helped to reinforce the attraction of these movements and give them greater visibility.

The aim of this political science project is therefore to examine the way in which so-called populist ideas, values or political practices circulate from one country to another in a region that has the particularity of being a space of cooperation, contacts and exchange of influences. It aims to stimulate and compare research on regional cooperation and the transnational circulation of ideas, by focusing on the political and social aspects of regionalization in the Baltic region. In this respect, the project is innovative: to date, work on circulations has focused primarily on economic integration, environmental cooperation and defense cooperation.

As part of this project, numerous interviews and discussions have been held (in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and France in 2019) with Nordic and Baltic researchers and experts - political scientists, historians and communication specialists - working on populisms in the Baltic region. This has also enabled us to identify and create contacts with a network of French and foreign researchers interested in different aspects of these issues. This project is partly funded by the 2018-2020 Young Researchers White Project.

Researchers associated with the project: Yoann Aucante (CESPRA-EHESS); Andres Kasekamp (University of Toronto); Jacques Rupnik (CERI Sciences Po); Anne de Tinguy (INALCO-CREE and CERI Sciences Po); Amélie Zima (IRSEM/CERCEC)

Main collaborations: CESPRA-EHESS, CERI Sciences Po, CERCEC, University of Toronto, University of Södertörn (Stockholm), University of Helsinki, University of Turku, Yohan Skytte Institute of Political Studies (Tartu), University of Tallinn.

Achievements:

  • Research seminar "Populisms and the far right in the Baltic Area: Networks, circulation of ideas and exchange of political practices" (November 12, 2018);

  • Round table "Elections in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden: How far will the populists go? " (May 16, 2019)

  • International colloquium "Populisms, media and networks in the countries of the Baltic space: Circulation of ideas and political practices" at INALCO (June 12, 2020)[2].

  • A publication is envisaged following the colloquium in the form of a collective work or a journal issue (2021-2022).

[2] Program for this symposium: http://www.inalco.fr/appel-communication/colloque-international-populismes-medias-reseaux-pays-espace-baltique

2.3.3. Urban transformations in the Soviet Union after 1945

Responsible: Eric Le Bourhis

In Communist Europe after 1945, and particularly on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, urban transformations are reputed to have been driven by Soviet-style policies imposed more or less directly by Moscow. This sub-project puts this conception to the test through an in-depth empirical study of Riga, the westernmost republican capital of the USSR (incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, reconquered in 1944). The study falls within the scope of urban history. In addition to providing a better understanding of the transformations of Soviet society in its western periphery, this study of urban change (in material and social terms) provides insights into the Sovietization of the satellite regions and the consequences of the expansion of the Soviet state, while measuring the weight of local specificities in this process.

The lines of research extend, in part, thesis research (2015) on the circulation of models and know-how to Riga (from Moscow, but also Sweden and Poland), the implementation of Soviet urban policies initiated in the 1950s (construction, protection against atomic danger) and the Sovietization (purification, feminization) of the architects' professional group. They also deal with property regimes and evictions of private individuals in the context of land nationalization imposed by the USSR, and with the consequences of population growth due to migration from Russia (registration of place of residence, housing construction), and interact in this sense with sub-project 2.4.2.

Associated researchers: Isabelle Backouche (EHESS/CRH), Jean-Louis Cohen (New York University), Jörg Hackmann (University of Szczecin), Jānis Lejnieks (Latvian Museum of Architecture), Dominique Mongin (ENS, INALCO), Nathalie Montel (ENPC/LATTS).

Main institutional partners: CRH, CERCEC, EHESS, ENS, IRSEM, Latvian Museum of Architecture, Latvian National Archives.

Expected outputs:

  • Publication of articles and chapters in collective works in 2020-2021;
  • Publication of a book in 2022 or 2023;
  • As part of the rapprochement between INALCO and EHESS, this project feeds in part into the master/research seminar "Losing one's home" at EHESS[3]

[3] https://enseignements-2019.ehess.fr/2019/ue/1724/

Projet 2.4. Mobilités, migrations, transferts

Responsables: Étienne Boisserie (CREE), Alisa Menshykova (UMR CERCEC-EHESS)

2.4.1. Being a refugee in Southeastern Europe during the last phase of the Eastern Question: definitions, representations, commemorations

Responsables: Joëlle Dalègre (CREE), Nicolas Pitsos (CREE)

Between the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Lausanne, via the Great War, the region of Southeastern Europe, went through a period of conflicts that marked both contemporaries and later generations. Their memory is still present in the public space of the societies concerned. These conflicts also led to forced migrations of populations.

This project aims to study the processes of production and expression of identifications, social images, belongings, strategies of integration/exclusion and commemorations of events and their actors, around refugees from military operations and/or diplomatic negotiations tracing new borders, during the years 1912-1923 in Southeast Europe. Identification concerns any discourse in which the definition of the refugee is produced by an external identifying institution, such as the family, business, school, trade unions, political parties, municipal services, state bodies (justice, ministry of public health, labor, interior, army, police, church), international organizations (humanitarian missions), the press and literature. Social images refer to the elaboration and dissemination of stereotyped representations of these refugees in various written and/or audiovisual media. Studying their belonging implies understanding how the individuals concerned appropriate, refuse, renegotiate or overcome the identifications and images associated with them. The aim of this project is to understand the interactions between these three processes of categorical definition, representational description and personal identification, while following their evolution in the light of socio-political, cultural and economic events in South-East Europe, from the inter-war period to the present day. At the same time, we will study the interactions between these "refugee" populations and those already settled in the host societies, as well as the memorial issues at stake, in historiographical approaches, literary echoes and media debates, according to the different historical and political sequences. With regard to this dimension of the project, it would be appropriate to examine the intervention of history in public debates and vice versa, the irruption of opinion, "public" and collective memory, in the reasoning and work of historians and legislators. Again from this perspective, particular importance will be attached to the phenomena, expressions and demonstrations of collective memory and its degrees of selective/partial or global/inclusive integration of the past and its actors, as well as its instrumentalization for the implementation of reconciliation mechanisms or, on the contrary, strategies of stigmatization of neighboring countries.
The work of this project is intended to be articulated with that of the Axis 3 project on the testimonies of crises, conflicts and exiles in the Balkans, from the 1940s to the present day.

Researchers associated with the project: Étienne Boisserie (CREE), Nicolas Pitsos (CREE), Joëlle Dalègre (CREE), Bernard Lory (CREE), Aleksandra Kolakovic (Institut d'Études Politiques, Belgrade), Isabelle Depret (University of Marmara), Iakovos Michailidis (Aristotle University), Dimitris Stamatopoulos (Makedonia University), Claudiu-Lucian Topor (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași), Amotz Giladi (EHESS).

Main collaborations: UMR SIRICE (Sorbonne-Identités, Relations Internationales, Civilisations d'Europe), Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne - Sorbonne Université, Institut d'Études Politiques Belgrade, Université Aristote de Salonique, Université Makedonia de Salonique, Université Alexandru Ioan Cuza de Iași, Université de Marmara, EFA, IFEA, CETOBAC, Centre Norbert Elias (Université d'Avignon).
< 
Proposed research operations:

  • An international colloquium;

  • Organization of roundtables in collaboration with cultural centers from Southeast European countries in France, with the aim of disseminating the results of the research carried out as part of the project.

Key words:interdisciplinary and transnational theme; cross-border histories; Southeastern Europe; population movements; refugees; Question d'Orient; commemorations; uses of the past.

2.4.2. Population movements in imperial and post-imperial medieval Europe Coordinators: Étienne Boisserie (CREE), Balázs Ablonczy (MTA, ELTE University, Budapest), Alisa Menshykova (UMR CERCEC-EHESS)

The spatial framework is constituted by the three empires existing in 1914, with particular attention paid to the eastern borders of the German Empire and the western borders of the Russian Empire. The chronological framework is that of the first 20th century, understood here as including the immediate post-World War II period. Within this delimited space, the project proposes to work on the times of major movements of civilian populations - excluding the specific case of the Shoah - in three main directions:

  1. Internal population movements induced by the occurrence of conflicts. This angle mainly concerns the issue of refugees, for which we will favour a micro-historical and regionalized approach. The main field of study for this research direction is the First World War, both at the time of its outbreak - which involved the transfer of civilian populations close to combat zones and/or deemed unreliable - and at the time of repatriation or reorganization following the end of the conflict. Within this chronological sequence, the contrasting situations of the populations concerned will be observed in the research dynamic opened up by the June 2018 colloquium on "local perspectives on the end of the war in Austro-Hungarian territories".

  2. Population transfers (expulsions, exchanges, colonization policy). This aspect of the question will give priority to observing the population changes that took place in medieval Europe in the decade 1938-1948, paying more specific attention to the periods 1938-1941 and 1945-1948. It's not so much a question of skipping over the Second World War as of observing the scale of human transformations in a chronological sequence that includes it without being reduced to it. The entire area covered, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, is subject to converging phenomena of radical human transformation spanning a decade. Incidentally, this research direction can be linked to the third that will be observed as part of this project.

  3. This third direction will be more specifically devoted to the analysis of French migration policy in the first twentieth century. It will build on and enrich the work of the other two departments. It will be based on a research workshop to be set up from 2020 onwards.

Associated researchers: Balázs Ablonczy (MTA, ELTE, Budapest), Gabriela Dudeková (Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, HÚ SAV, Bratislava), Iryna Dmytrychyn (CREE), Bruno Drweski (CREE), Francesco Frizzera (University of Padua), Irina Gridan (CREE), Anne Grynberg (CREE), Borut Klabjan (European University Institute, Florence), Jernej KOSI (University of Ljubljana), Antoine Marès (Université Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne), Isabelle Davion (Sorbonne Université), Jean-Philippe Namont (post-doc), Tamás Révész (University of Vienna), Kamil Ruszała (Jagiellonian University Kraków), Urška Strle (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, SAZU, Ljubljana), Peter Švorc (University of Prešov, SK), László Vörös (HÚ SAV).

Institutional partners: University of Ljubljana, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, UMR SIRICE, CERCEC, Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, University of Padua, University of Vienna.

Expected achievements:

The three research directions will be the subject of achievements of different natures:

  • First strand: two colloquia (2020 and 2023) with publication of proceedings.
  • Second strand (population transfers, colonization): cycle of study days (annual rhythm) with a regional vocation, combining thematic and chronological approaches.
  • Third strand (exile): Research workshop: "Central Europe and French migration policy".

Three workshops, on an annual basis, starting in 2020.

Key words: refugees, exile, population transfers, repatriation, war violence, world wars, French migration policy, immigration to France, colonization policy.

Project 2.5. Social history of politics in the communist and post-communist periods in Central and Eastern Europe: national elites, transnational influences

Responsible: Irina Gridan (CREE)

In order to better understand the post-Cold War political and geopolitical repositioning of Eastern Bloc countries and the USSR/Russia, this project proposes an analysis of the recompositions of decision-making actors, their networks and influences, as well as the practices of political elites, their interactions and their sociabilities. Starting from the observation of the difficult emergence of civil society and its demands on the political scene, through the highly topical example of civic movements in Romania, we will then broaden the reflection geographically, by drawing up an assessment of lustration policies on the scale of the entire region. Finally, a diachronic approach will aim to question, in both communist and post-communist periods, the vectors, role and weight of Soviet and then Russian policies of influence aimed at elites in Central and Eastern European countries.

The Russian archives will also be used to examine circulations and networks within the CAEM on environmental issues: resource management, protection of wetlands and deltas, cross-border national park projects between the Academies of Science of the USSR and the countries of "People's Democracy": Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary in particular.

Researchers associated (and wished to be associated) with the project: Raluca Alexandrescu (University of Bucharest), Vasile Buga (INST, Centre for Russian and Soviet Studies), Ana Cătănuş (INST, Centre for Russian and Soviet Studies), Laurent Coumel (CREE), Catherine Durandin (CREE), Katerina Kesa (CREE), Alexandru Mironov (INST), Sophie Momzikoff (CRHS - SIRICE), Cristina Preutu (University of Iaşi), Agata Stolarz (University of Lublin).

Main collaborations envisaged: GDR Connaissance de l'Europe médiane, CRHS (Centre de recherche en histoire des Slaves), UMR SIRICE (Sorbonne Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l'Europe), INST (Institut national pour l'étude du totalitarisme, Bucarest), Centre d'études russes et soviétiques de Bucarest, Faculté de sciences politiques de l'université de Bucarest, Faculté d'histoire de l'Université de Iaşi.

Planned research events:

  • Autumn 2019: organization of a round table on the theme of the resurgence of civil societies and their difficult inscription and expression in the political arena, with the participation of actors and witnesses from Romania and the possibility of expanding to several Central and Eastern European countries;
  • Spring 2021: holding a study day on the theme of comparative analysis of political personnel renewals and lustrations in Central and Eastern Europe: models, policies, effects, blockages;
  • Fall 2021: publication of a thematic journal issue on the issue of lustrations;
  • Spring 2023: organization of an international colloquium on the theme of the vectors of Soviet/Russian influence on the Communist and then post-Communist political elites of the Central and Eastern European space: men and networks, material and immaterial forms;
  • Fall 2023: publication of the proceedings of the aforementioned international colloquium.

Key words:political history; social history of politics; elites; networks; Soviet/Russian policies of influence; post-communist recompositions; lustrations; civil societies.

Project 2.6. From reforms to economic and social transformations in Central and Eastern European countries (Assen Slim, Julien Vercueil)

The collapse of the socialist system has led to the development of several conceptions of transition, sometimes summed up as the opposition between, on the one hand, proponents of a teleological vision of change, proposing an a priori model for it, and, on the other, those who propose evolutionary and historicized visions, rejecting any finalism in the analysis of transformations.

These debates have changed their focus, but the approaches remain marked by this methodological separation. This research project sets out to (1) confront approaches to change applied to the economies of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia, (2) contribute to the construction of a political economy framework capable of accounting for contemporary transformations in these societies, and (3) identify and analyze the issues at stake in these countries' relationship to the European Union, particularly in the areas of economic and institutional integration.

1. Conceptions of systemic change 
Systemic change having taken place at different rates and in different ways in the region despite the often unifying approaches of the major international institutions (IMF, World Bank, OECD, EU, EBRD), the latter have been forced to incorporate some of the results obtained by alternative approaches to systemic change, such as the importance of formal and informal institutions in the response of individual and collective actors to political impulses, the role of the pace and coherence of reforms in their effectiveness, and the need to take account of the historical dimension in understanding trajectories (path dependency). Our hypothesis is that this institutional economics framework may prove useful not only for apprehending economic and social transformations in the CEECs, but also for grasping major changes in growth models (linked to issues of socio-economic innovation, sustainable development, the collaborative, social and solidarity economy, or the degrowth society), in the countries in the area covered by CREE-INALCO.

2. Contemporary socio-economic transformations in CEE 
Economic and social transformations in CEE have given rise to "surprises of transformation" (M. Ellman). These unexpected situations, sometimes contradictory to the objectives initially set, affect monetary issues (inertial inflation, W. Andreff), macroeconomic and productive issues (transformational recession, J. Kornaï), microeconomic and managerial issues (entrenchment of managers, non-renewal of economic elites, B. Chavance, E. Magnin, G. Mink), or corporate governance issues (entangled ownership, E. Magnin). The socio-economic consequences of change, first in terms of poverty, then in terms of socio-economic disparities, have not always been taken into account by the initiators of systemic reforms. Our program will aim to propose analyses of these transformations that integrate the social dimension.

3. The relationship to the European Union 
The enlargements of 2004, 2007 and 2013 have created a new geo-economy for Central and Eastern Europe. The definition of the acquis communautaire and associated prescriptions, the succession of EU assistance programs (PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD), first- and second-generation trade agreements and sub-regional groupings have reconfigured the economic relationship of the region's countries with their Western European partners. At a time when the EU is going through an institutional and political crisis, questions of convergence/divergence, solidarity and intra-community competition are at the heart of the debate. The aim here is to detail the issues at stake in order to sketch out the prospects for European construction and the future evolution of its relations with its neighbors.

Main collaborations envisaged:
Laboratoire Dynamique des sciences sociales et recomposition des espaces (Ladyss, Paris 7 Diderot) within which several of our economist colleagues are working on economic transformations in Eastern Europe. Continuation of the collective research project with the authors of Tableau de bord des pays d'Europe centrale et orientale et d'Eurasie (Presses de l'INALCO, 2019).

Research events:

  • Study day on paradigm shifts organized by the GDR Europe médiane and CREE
  • Preparation of the biennial publication of the Tableau de bord des pays d'Europe centrale et orientale et d'Eurasie (horizon 2021)
  • Workshop on systemic change approaches (during 2021).
  • Publication of a thematic dossier on social transformations in Eastern Europe in an academic journal.

Key words:
Economic transition, systemic change analysis, economic and social transformations in CEE, formal and informal institutions, EU enlargement, Convergence/divergence, assistance program, European policies.