International Conference, Tbilisi, 25–27 February 2027
Organizer: David Jishkariani (Max Weber Foundation – Max Weber Network Eastern Europe (MWNO)
Co-organizer: Jörn Happel (Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg)
Submission Deadline: 20 October 2026
https://mwsgeorgia.hypotheses.org/13941
During the early decades of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union undertook a massive project of defining, institutionalizing, and mapping nationality. Grounded in the structural principles of territoriality, economic viability, and demographic/ethnographic composition, this era witnessed the creation of numerous territorial entities across the vast expanse of the early Soviet Union. Centered on the idea of nativization/indigenization (korenizatsiia), Soviet nationalities policy encouraged diverse ethnic groups to develop their own administrative, political, and cultural institutions. These formations varied significantly, reflecting distinct linguistic, cultural, geographic, and economic realities.
This conference seeks to move beyond the vantage point of the Soviet Union’s eventual, successful establishment/institutionalization of nationality to explore these “forgotten” alternatives. The organizers invite papers that examine not merely why these territorial and nonterritorial entities were dismantled, but how they functioned as sites of social and political experimentation. The organizers ask: What did these structures mean to the officials who built them and the diverse populations who inhabited them? By recovering these projects, this conference challenges the teleological view of the USSR as a predetermined “communal apartment” of nations, revealing instead a period of possibility and contingency in Soviet state and nation-building.
The organizers welcome contributions addressing various geographical regions, scales of analysis, and chronological frameworks. Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
- Official and unofficial reasons behind the creation of territorial entities: the visions of the Soviet center and the role of local agency
- The role of personalities and negotiations in the formation of political units
- The influence of foreign actors in shaping these entities
- Internal dynamics and official and unofficial policies behind the dissolution of the (non)-territorial formations
- Memory, commemoration, and reinterpretation of these entities in historiography and public life
Please send your proposal as a single PDF file, including your name, affiliation, presentation title, abstract (300–500 words), and a short CV (1–2 pages) to info@mws-georgia.org, with “[Paths Not Taken]” in the subject line, by 20 October 2026. Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance by 10 November 2026.
You can find the full CfP here: https://mwsgeorgia.hypotheses.org/files/2026/09/CfP_path-not-taken_.pdf
The organizers will cover travel costs (airfare up to a maximum amount) and accommodation.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nino Tsertsvadze (September 2, 2026). CfP: Paths Not Taken: Forgotten (?!) (Non-)Territorial Entities in the Early Soviet Union. MWS Georgia Branch Office. Retrieved September 3, 2026 from https://mwsgeorgia.hypotheses.org/13941