|
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CENTRAL AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The last year of the twentieth century marked the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the creation of an international scholarly association
known today as the International Council for Central and East European
Studies (ICCEES). It is now into its third decade. When it was founded
at the first international and multidisciplinary conference of scholars
working in this field, held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, on 4-7 September
1974, it was given the name of International Committee for Soviet and
East European Studies (ICSEES). Its creation is best understood as the
result of developments in the academic world that were influenced by
the state of East-West relations after 1945.
Research into and the teaching about the nations and cultures of
Russia, later the Soviet Union, East, Central, and South-eastern Europe
have always depended on a number of factors that strongly affect the
structure and the way the different countries of this area are studied.
These include:
-
Each country’s position in or proximity to that half of Europe known as Eastern Europe;
-
The intensity of their cultural relations;
-
The influence of international and domestic politics; and
-
Developments in various academic disciplines.
After the Second World War, the global competition between the Soviet
Union and the United States exerted a major influence on the
establishment of new research centres and academic programmes in the
West that specialised in this area. The study of the Communist
political system, its society and economy, and East-West relations in
particular, received government encouragement and financing. However,
when compared with the older established disciplines of language and
literature or history, for example, there was little exchange between
research centres and scholars around the world. In addition, the
conditions for research as well as the ways of thinking and the
approaches often differed and, to some degree, still differ from
country to country today; this is particularly the case in the United
States, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Finland, Israel, Japan,
and Australia. On the other hand, the international character of
scholarly work per se and the possibilities offered by modern
communications made it possible for increased co-operation, or at least
the exchange of information, on a hitherto unprecedented scale.
These developments were the main motivation for bringing together the
very different national organisations in the field and for forming a
permanent committee of their representatives, which would serve as an
umbrella organisation as well as a promoter of closer co-operation.
Four national scholarly associations launched ICSEES at the Banff
conference: the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
Studies (AAASS), the National Association for Soviet and East European
Studies in Great Britain (NASEES), the British Universities Association
of Slavists (BUAS), and the Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS).
Shortly after the Banff conference, the German association (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde) joined ICSEES, and by 1980 17
national associations or institutes (in countries where nation-wide
organisations did not exist) had become members of the international
committee. There were additional applications in subsequent years.
Associate membership was instituted in 1990 to include academic
institutions and scholarly organisations from countries where a
national organisation embracing the scholarly community in the field of
Central, East European and Eurasian Studies had not yet emerged. As
ICCEES entered its third decade of existence, the International Council
was composed of 20 full and six associate members.
ICSEES adopted at Banff a “founding declaration” which defined its purpose and aims as follows:
“ICSEES
aims to create an international community of scholars and scholarship
on Soviet and East European affairs. The advantages of this achievement
are manifold: First, the pooling of information breeds ideas. Second,
money, time and energy can be saved by joining effort and by reducing
duplication over national boundaries, be it in organising conferences
or when formulating project designs. Third, in the face of material adversity, it helps to be
aware of the international weight the profession carries, and to
exchange information on difficulties, which may arise to challenge the
profession. Fourth, scholars from countries where Soviet and
East European area study is a recent phenomenon deserve a chance to
partake of the achievements in methodology, organisation and
publication already attained by those who began earlier and who have
therefore advanced further. Fifth, young newcomers to the profession should be admitted
to the world of international exchange earlier and with greater
facility than established procedures would normally allow.”
In his recently published autobiography, Adam Bromke, the spiritus movens
of the Banff conference and first president of ICSEES, reminisced about
the beginning of ICSEES and the policy of its presidents to acknowledge
excellence and success in the scientific community but also in
international politics (Adam Bromke, Polak w swiecie, Warszawa, 1995). The latter was necessary
because of the ups and downs of East-West relations in the 1960s and
the early 1970s, which influenced in a variety of ways the attitude of
governments towards Soviet and East European studies. To this end,
after prolonged discussions, the following resolution was adopted in
Banff and served as a general guideline for ICSEES activities:
“ICSEES will pay special attention to problems connected with the
study of the USSR and Eastern Europe as foreign countries: (1) It
recognises that scholars of the various member countries exercise
freedom of choice as to themes and methods of research and will take
into account the particular features of the organisation of research
and the methods of international co-operation existing in these
countries. (2) In order to ensure better mutual exchange of information
between specialists on the USSR and the nations of Eastern Europe and
scholars from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the various
disciplines, ICSEES will seek to develop the broadest possible
co-operation on all problems of common interest through exchange of
documents, discussions on methodology, organisation of joint meetings,
exchange of scholars and all other appropriate forms of
collaboration.”
In the wake of this resolution, ICSEES sought to include scholars from
East, Central, and South-eastern Europe as well as the Soviet Union in
its activities, which meant inviting them to participate in its world
congresses. 820 officially registered delegates and some 500 observers
had attended the Conference in Banff. Participants had come from 29
countries, including 11 representatives from the USSR and 14 scholars
from Eastern Europe. The opening speech, a balanced view of culture and
science under the conditions of ideological controversy, was given by
Jan Szczepanski, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Unfortunately, he could not deliver it in person. Jerzy Wiatr, who
became Minister of National Education in Poland in 1996-97, read it for
him. ICSEES demonstrated in this way its policy of championing academic
freedom under difficult political circumstances.
The interdependence of politics and scholarly interests in this area
was particularly evident in the preparations for the Second World
Congress, which was organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Osteuropakunde in close cooperation with ICSEES. It was held in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, on 30 September - 4 October 1980. The
programme committee extended invitations to individual scholars in
different disciplines in all of the countries of the Soviet bloc as
early as 1978 and ensured that the Academy of Sciences in each country
was informed about the procedure concerning congress preparations,
asking for their support and participation. The initial response from
most of them seemed positive. In the spring of 1980, the Soviet Academy
of Sciences sent a small delegation to Germany for further
consultation. As a result of open discussions, there was some hope that
Soviet scholars would participate, but in August the organising
committee received an official refusal by telegram. Shortly thereafter,
this refusal was followed by similar cancellations from the other
countries. Their Communist governments had decided to boycott the
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Congress; still 18 scholars from Yugoslavia,
Poland, China, Romania, and Hungary, who ignored this boycott, were
among the 1415 registered participants from 32 countries who took an
active part in the congress.
The Third Congress, which took place in Washington, DC, on 30 October -
4 November 1985, also had only unofficial representatives from the
East. There were 3095 registered participants from 41 countries among
whom were 45 Soviet and East European scholars who participated in a
multitude of panels. In the wake of the Washington congress, the
International Committee was renamed International Council in 1988.
Nevertheless, the Soviet attitude towards ICSEES, as well as that of
other Communist governments, remained until 1989. In the German
Democratic Republic, for instance, there were even insinuations of an
international “conspiracy” against the socialist countries.
The role assigned to ICSEES by Communist propaganda was without
foundation, but of practical importance. Change, however, was on the
way.
The 1990 congress was marked by the political transformations that were
taking place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It opened the way
for the composition and the activities of the present International
Council for Central and East European Studies (ICCEES). Held in
Harrogate, England, on 21-26 July 1990, the IV World Congress saw the
participation of about 240 scholars from nearly every country in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union out of some 2,400 participants. It
heralded a break with the past and underlined their hope for the
future. The papers, discussions, and the proceedings published
afterwards marked an historical event in the history of ICSEES and
especially in the studies of this area. Former political and
ideological barriers no longer stood in the way and the ground was laid
for common scholarly research. The change of name from ICSEES to
ICCEES, adopted in 1993, may therefore be seen as the fulfillment of
one of the original aims of the organization referred to above: “to seek to develop the broadest possible co-operation on
all problems of common interest through exchange of documents,
discussions on methodology, organization of joint meetings, exchange of
scholars and all other appropriate forms of collaboration.”
The V World Congress was held in Warsaw on 6-11 August 1995. Some 1400
scholars found their way to the Polish capital. The location clearly
demonstrated what was only too obvious to all congress participants,
namely that the former distinctions between the scholarly communities
of East and West had completely disappeared. ICCEES had become an
organisation in which scholars from all parts of the world were active
on equal terms.
It is the Finnish city of Tampere, not unimportant in the history of
communism (it is here that Lenin and Stalin first met), which hosted
the VI World Congress from 29 July to 3 August 2000. The choice of
Finland was appropriate for another reason: the twenty-fifth
anniversary on 1 August of the first Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) that had been held in 1975 in Helsinki.
Some 2000 participants from 48 countries attended the congress in the
Tampere Hall Congress centre and the adjacent University of Tampere
campus. It was a remarkable congress for a number of reasons: the
anniversary of the creation of the CSCE was celebrated at the congress;
for the first time since the creation of ICCEES, the second largest
delegation was the Russian one; the congress programme included three
concerts (one that was broadcast to the European Union), several film
presentations, a commercial exhibit of literature and information
services; and post-congress tours were organized not only to Lapland
and eastern Finland, but also to Estonia and St. Petersburg in Russia.
The VII World Congress was held in Berlin, Germany from 25 to 30 July
2005 at the Humboldt-Universität in former East Berlin and was
organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde (DGO)
under the direction of Professor Thomas Bremer of the Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. The theme of the congress
was: “Europe, a common home” There were 1,792 registered
participants from 49 countries when the congress was opened at the Haus
der Kulturen der Welt by Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the
President of the DGO, Member and former Speaker of the German
Bundestag, Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth, and other German dignitaries.
There were 1,300 papers given in 18 different areas of research. This
time, the second largest delegation, after the German one, was from the
United States, followed by that of the Russian Federation.
The VIII World Congress will be held in Stockholm, Sweden in 2010, and
will be organized by the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia,
Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia. The theme of this congress
will be: “Eurasia: prospects for wider cooperation.”
Information about the congress will be made available in time in the
pages of the International Newsletter.
THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
ICCEES (full council) is composed of representatives of national
organisations and associated institutions. In view of the diverse
nature of Central and East European studies world-wide and of the
varying types of national organisations, four countries have two
representatives (UK, Canada, Germany, and USA) while the others have
one. Countries with an associate membership may be represented by an
observer at the meetings of the International Council. The term of
office is normally five years and the International Council meets at
each congress and once in the intervening period.
The work of the council is carried out by an Executive Committee, which
is responsible for preparing the agenda of meetings of the
International Council and calling otherwise pertinent matters to its
attention. The Executive Committee consists of a President, two Vice
Presidents, a Secretary, five members, and, ex officio,
the Director of the International Information Centre. Term of office is
the same as for the full Council. The Executive Committee normally
meets annually.
The
first Executive Committee was composed, among others, of some of the
organizers of the Banff Conference, namely Professor Adam Bromke of
McMaster University, Canada, who became the first ICCEES President and
Professor Don K. Rowney of Bowling Green State University, USA, who
became Secretary. At the Second World Congress in 1980, Professor Oskar
Anweiler of the Ruhr Universität Bochum, Federal Republic of
Germany, became the second ICCEES President with Professor Stanislav J.
Kirschbaum of York University, Glendon College, Canada, as Secretary.
In 1985, Professor Alexander Dallin of Stanford University, USA, became
President and was succeeded by John D. Morison, Esq., of the University
of Leeds, United Kingdom, as fourth ICCEES President in 1990. In 1995,
in Warsaw, Poland, Professor Ferdinand Feldbrugge of Rijksuniversiteit
te Leiden, Holland, was elected fifth ICCEES President. The sixth
president, elected at the Tampere congress in Finland in 2000, was
Leslie T. Holmes of the University of Melbourne, Australia. His
successor, elected in Berlin, Germany in July 2005 is Emeritus
Professor John D. Elsworth of the University of Manchester, United
Kingdom.
In its constituent period, the International Council and its Executive
Committee concentrated on the basic questions of organization, finance
and exchange of information through the International Information
Center and its International Newsletter. While continuing its
indirect contribution to international activities in this way, ICCEES
has also sought to devote time and energy to special programmes and
regional as well as binational initiatives in the field. In recent
years, the development of links and projects with scholars in
ex-Communist countries has become an activity of particular importance.
THE INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION CENTRE
One of the earliest decisions of the Executive Committee was to
establish an organ of international communication. To this end an
International Information Centre was established at the University of
Glasgow, Scotland, in 1975 to document and stimulate international
communication. In 1979, the Centre was transferred to the Institut
national d'études slaves in Paris, France. In 1988, the Centre
moved from Paris to Uppsala University in Sweden. As a result of the
development of electronic communication, the Centre was also given a
mission in 1993 to link into the development of electronic transmission
of information, and was transferred to the University of Melbourne,
Australia, to take effect in 1995. At the same time, a European
Information Centre was set up at the Finnish Institute for Russian and
East European Studies in Helsinki, Finland with the task of
establishing a data base of scholars and institutions active in the
field within the countries of Central Europe and the former Soviet
Union. In 2000, the Centre was moved to the Finnish Institute for
Russian and East European Studies in Helsinki, thus bringing together
under one roof all of the communication activities of ICCEES.
The International Information Centre publishes an International Newsletter
twice a year. It is distributed to all individual members through their
national associations and committees free of charge. The International Newsletter
circulates in 7,000 copies world-wide and 44 issues had been published
by the time ICCEES was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. All
issues since January 1996 (No. 36) are now available on the web page of
the Finnish Institute for Russian and East European Studies in Helsinki
(www.rusin.fi).
On 1 October 2005, the ICCEES Information Centre moved from Helsinki,
Finland to Münster, Germany. All important information on ICCEES
and all issues of the International Newsletter after September 2005 (No. 56) are available on the website www.iccees.org.
The International Newsletter
is the facet of ICCEES activity, which the individual scholar can see
most readily. It is also a more regular vehicle of communication than
chance meetings with colleagues at conferences. News is collected by
direct correspondence and travel and from the many bulletins, which
exist all over the world. All those working in the field are invited to
write to the Editor about relevant institutional activities.
Another
important facet of ICCEES activity is the publication of congress
proceedings. After each world congress, participants are invited to
submit their papers to a panel of volume editors selected by a General
Editor named by the International Council. The list of volumes from
each congress is published below. From the Berlin congress there will
be volumes that will be part of a new ICCEES series entitled Studies in Central and Eastern Europe published by Palgrave Macmillan.
FINANCE
The activities of the International Council have been supported by a
number of generous grants from governments, institutions, and
universities. The foreign ministries of Canada, France, the Federal
Republic of Germany, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United
States of America have provided financial support, as have the Canada
Council, the Hokkaido Municipal Government, the Nippon Steel
Corporation of Japan, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, and the Finnish Institute of Russian and East
European Studies. In addition, a number of national associations have
been providing annual contributions to ICCEES. The universities to
which the officers of ICCEES have been and are currently attached have
also rendered valuable assistance, none more so than Bowling Green
State University (U.S.A.), the University of Glasgow (U.K), I'lnstitut
du monde soviétique et de l'Europe centrale et orientale
(France), l'Institut national d'études slaves (France), McMaster
University (Canada), Ruhr Universität Bochum (F.R.G.), Stanford
University (U.S.A.), Uppsala universitet (Sweden), York University
(Canada), the University of Leeds (U.K.), Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden,
(Holland), the University of Manchester (U.K.), and the University of
Melbourne (Australia).
The International Information Centre and the International Newsletter
have also received financial support directly from a number of
agencies. Initially established thanks to a grant from the Ford
Foundation, the Centre has benefited from the assistance provided by
the Volkswagenwerk Stiftung (F.R.G.), the French Ministry of External
Relations, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, and the Sasakawa
Peace Foundation of Japan. There have also been ad hoc contributions from various sources for the World
Congresses held under the auspices of the International Council and for
meetings and the travel of ICCEES officers. From among many sponsors of
the Tampere congress, for example, the European Union made a generous
contribution through its Phare and Tacis Programmes.
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
It
is now a little over three decades ago since the need was felt by
scholars to coordinate the efforts in the “free world” to
describe and analyze the Communist political system, its society and
economy, and East-West relations in particular. Half-way through this
period, the Communist system collapsed, the region that was the object
of study was reorganized, and many of the nations as well as the new
states that emerged set out on a path of democratic development,
economic growth, and, in many cases, inclusion in Western institutions.
The process turned out to be complex, and there were setbacks. Yet, by
2004, the European Union as well as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization had welcomed those post-Communist states that had met all
of the requirements for membership. Not all of the applicant states
achieved this objective; but the process is ongoing. For this reason,
perhaps even more than before, the region that encompassed the former
Communist world demands study, explanation, and analysis, as both
centripetal and centrifugal forces are at work in each state and across
the region.
The theme of the 2005 Berlin Congress - “Europe, a common
home” - well exemplified the challenges and the tasks that have
awaited the academic community throughout the world since the fall of
communism. Ideological barriers no longer separate academics,
researchers, and scholars. But new objectives have appeared; scholars
in Europe well know what role they can play in the process that has
been bringing about European unification; those looking in from the
outside can offer different perspectives, other approaches. This is
what the Tampere Congress heralded. And this is what the Berlin
Congress challenged all scholars around the world and in particular the
International Council for Central and East European Studies to do in
the years to come. In anticipation that these changes will continue to
take place and will embrace additional countries and peoples east of
Europe, the Swedish congress offers the theme: “Eurasia:
prospects for wider cooperation.”
What
better perspectives for greater scholarly cooperation and coordination
could there be - the very vision of the “founding
declaration” that was adopted at the first congress in Banff in
1974. The past three decades may well have been merely a prologue.
Stanislav J. Kirschbaum
Secretary, ICCEES
|
