World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies

On August 3rd-8^th 2015, a working group from the International Research Project ‘Comparative Historical Studies of Empire and Nationalism’ took part in the ICCEES Congress in Japan.

The participants presented their reports as part of the roundtable ‘Politics in the Composite Space of Empire: Nationality, Locality and Supranational Identities in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union’.

On August 3rd-8th the World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES) took place in Chiba.

ICCEES brings together research organizations from different countries engaged in research into Central Eurasia, including countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The Congress is held every five years and this is the first time it has taken place outside Europe and America. The ninth ICCEES World Congress was held in Chiba, in the conference center ‘Makuhari Messe’ and in the buildings of the Kanda University of International Studies.
The ICCEES Congress programme was divided into thematic sessions, during which three participants delivered reports and one participant monitored the session and acted as an opponent to the speakers. The reports were followed by a discussion. About 400 sessions and over 50 roundtables were held during the Congress.

The participants of the working group on ‘Comparative Historical Studies of Empire and Nationalism’ led by Ronald G. Suny initiated the organization of the roundtable ‘Politics in the Composite Space of Empire: Nationality, Locality and Supranational Identities in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union’. Members of the working group presented the following reports:

• Jeremy Smith, University of Eastern Finland 

The Absence of a Nationality Policy in the Soviet Union

• Ronald Suny, University of Michigan

Dilemmas of the Damned: Dealing with `Internal Enemies’ in the Imperial Crisis of World War I

• Alexander Semyonov, HSE in Saint Petersburg

The Concept of Minority and Its Making in the Russian Empire of the Duma Period

• Ivan Sablin, HSE in Saint Petersburg 

Buddhism, Socialism, and Nationalism in Post-Imperial North Asia, 1905–1924.

This year about 1,700 participants from more than sixty countries took part in the Congress. According to rough estimates, about a thousand people are currently researching Central and Eastern Europe in Japan, for 80% of them it is the main area of research. About 400 researchers took part in the Congress.

According to Kimitaka Matsuzato, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Law Professor at the University of Tokyo, the International Council includes researchers from around the world. Multiculturalism and multilingualism are distinctive features of the organisation. The official languages of the Congress are English, Russian, German and French (about 70-80% of the reports are in English, and 20-30% in Russian).