Napoleon Bonaparte once said that history is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon; but what happens when people don’t agree?

On Tuesday, Jan. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. in 503 Eiseland, the Trans-Atlantic MA Program in East-Central European Studies and the West Virginia University Department of History will host a lecture by Heiko P��bo, director of the Baltic Studies Program and coordinator of the Atlantis program at the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia.

The talk will delve into the politics of how memory and perspective are shaping the histories of Estonia and Russia.

The talk, “The Politics of Memory in Estonian-Russian Relations,” will address recent controversies and conflicts over the removal and retention of Soviet-era war memorials in Estonia, the role of the Russian minority in Estonia in these disputes and the role of politically contested historical memory in bilateral relations between Estonia and the Russian Federation.

Heiko P��bo is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Tartu, previously studying at St. Petersburg State University in Russia, Potsdam University in Germany and the US Institute on National Security.

P��bo has been a lecturer in the University of Tartu’s Russian and East European Studies Program where his teaching focused on the political history and foreign policy of the Baltic States, imperial Russian history and Cold War and post-Cold War international relations.

P��bo has authored or co-authored scholarly works in the areas of international relations, memory studies, transition studies, Baltic studies, and Russian and East European studies.

His most recent book, published in Saarbr�cken in 2009, is a comparative analysis of contemporary US policies in Central America and Russian policies in the Baltic States.

-WVU-

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CONTACT: Robert Blobaum, Eberly Distinguished Professor of History
Robert.Blobaum@mail.wvu.edu.