Prague, 16 November 2022 - The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Platform for European Memory and Conscience, the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century are organizing the conference Russia's Hybrid War Against the Democratic World. A Challenge for European Memory Policy, which will take place on 16-18 November 2022 at the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague, on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in the former Czechoslovakia.
It will be attended by several dozen representatives of memory institutions and organisations from more than two dozen countries in Europe and North America associated in the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and a number of other invited speakers from politicians, journalists, European institutions and activists.
The conference will focus on contemporary Russian hybrid threats, with a particular focus on the falsification of 20th century history, myth-making as a tool of disinformation warfare and its significance in light of the current military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, and as a challenge to the international community in the field of memory policy.
The conference is held as an important side event of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It will be attended by the President of Lithuania, Mr Gitanas Nausėda, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Mr Petr Fiala and the National Leader of Belarus, Ms Sviatlana Cichanouská.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala says: "Disinformation and hybrid threats are nothing new in history, but Europe and the whole world are facing them now more than ever in the light of Russia's aggression in Ukraine. It is good that there are memory institutions that have mapped the history of these threats and that events like this one are taking place. It is precisely the debate on the history of hybrid threats and their evolution that can help us better find ways to effectively defend against them. I am glad that the conference is being held under the Czech Presidency, in a country that has its own experience with the effects of totalitarian regimes."
"As recent years have shown us, there is no end to history, and what is more, we are all witnessing the misuse of history as a weapon. History may be the most humane subject, but Russia's disinformation campaigns and the attack on Ukraine are proof that if we forget its importance, it can be misused for evil deeds. The aim of this conference is not only to analyse Russian disinformation in the field of history, but to reflect on how it can be countered, not only for today, but also for the future of Europe," says Marek Mutor, President of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.
"Those who do not know their own history are forced to repeat it. Today, it is fully demonstrated that the so-called revisionism of totalitarian regimes can have tragic consequences, as confirmed by the Russian aggression against the sovereign Ukrainian nation, which was justified by the campaign against the local 'fascism'," says Ladislav Kudrna, director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.
"I am pleased that the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century, in cooperation with other institutions, is participating in the organization of such a conference. The events in Ukraine and the undisguised aggressive policy of Putin's Russia clearly show the relevance and necessity of facing threats that have never been more topical since the end of the Cold War," says Jan Kalous, Director of the Museum of Memory of the Twentieth Century.
The opening of the conference will be accompanied by the opening of a Lithuanian exhibition Under a Foreign Sky: Lithuanians in Soviet Forced Labour Camps and Exile 1940-1958. The Platform of European Memory and Conscience Award 2021 will be presented at a gala evening on 16 November.
On the occasion of the conference, the member organisations will also decide on the readmission of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes to the Platform of European Memory and Conscience, which it helped to found and from which it left under its previous leadership.
You can register for the conference on 17-18 November here:http://www.memoryandconscience.eu/conference-2022/
The project is implemented with the financial support of the Capital City of Prague. Prague
