Higher Seminar in Statecraft and Strategic Communication | Klas-Göran Karlsson
Abstract: The lecture will focus on the functions of the historical dimension in general, and on its role to sanction, legitimize and rationalize Putin’s war against Ukraine and mobilize Russian for the war in particular. When human beings turn to history for sense-making and orientation in time we do not act arbitrarily and spontaneously, but rather in accordance with established cultural and ideological patterns. The lecture will have an archaeological or genealogical orientation to identity the important layers of Russian history culture, and to analyze how these layers are handled in present-day Russian political discourse.
Bio: Klas-Göran Karlsson is Professor Emeritus of History, Lund University. His professional interests span over vast areas of contemporary international history, with an emphasis on Soviet and Russian studies, genocide studies, world war studies, and problems of European uses of history. His most recent books are Genocide – The History of a Crime against Humanity (in Swedish; 2021), Natur & Kultur’s Global History (2 vol., in Swedish, ed.; 2022), 1920s: A Mirror for Our Time (with Kim Salomon; 2024), Lessons of History: The Holocaust and Soviet Terror as Borderline Events (2024), Russia and Its War on History (in Swedish; 2025), Historical Lessons: Learning from Conflict and Crisis in Twentieth-Century Europe (ed., with Maria Karlsson; 2025).