In the Gulag's Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former Soviet Union
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Social Work and Social Policy
Abstract
The Soviet Gulag was one of the most awesome expressions of penal power in world history. Yet, thirty years after the end of the Soviet Union research into punishment in the former Soviet Union is limited. Whereas criminology as a discipline is burgeoning in North America and Western Europe, in the former Soviet Union varying incarceration rates and the social and cultural legacies of the Gulag's continent-sized system of punishment has not been systematically studied. Yet, the region presents a number of puzzles that touch on our wider understanding of penal policy, cultures of punishment and societal attitudes. We describe these puzzles below. To explore them, we have chosen to compare Russia and Kazakhstan - the two biggest countries in the former Soviet Union that held the most Gulag sites during the Soviet period.
Firstly, how do we map and explain change in prison rates and conditions across the post Soviet region? How can we understand why, since the year 2000 and against all predictions, many prison populations across the former Soviet Union have gone into decline? What political economic factors might explain this? How did policy makers in Russia and Kazakhstan go about constructing a penal policy and what shaped their preferences? What might it tell us about the driving factors that can explain decarceration in other contexts?
Secondly, what do Russians and Kazakhs think about state-sanctioned punishment? Many political scientists believe that the rise of strong leaders and authoritarianism in Russia is a result of political culture. On this view, Russian attitudes - forged by history, geography and culture - favour particular undemocratic governance forms. Yet, despite the size and scale of the Gulag we know very little about how Russians or Kazakhs think about punishment, its predictability and severity, and how this mediates the relationship of citizens with their states and what citizens want from prisons today.
Thirdly, how is punishment constructed culturally in products such as TV shows, films, songs and prison museums? How do Russians and Kazakhs consume these products and what meanings are conveyed through them? Theorists have debated the ways in which punishment is also a cultural practice. Despite the fact that one of the legacies of the Gulag has been a visual and musical culture that has become popularized in the present day, there has been no systematic study of this in the former Soviet Union, still less on the various prison museums that have emerged there. This is an important question as how citizens spectate on prisons and punishment often from afar can help to maintain a system of power.
In investigating these questions, this research project aims to produce a unique, in depth study of the construction of punishment through state policy, societal attitudes and cultural forms in Russia and Kazakhstan. The project utilizes mixed methodologies taken from across academic disciplines. The methods include a social survey, interviews with policy makers, documentary analysis and desk-based statistical analysis as well as in situ cultural exploration at museum sites and interactions with cultural consumers.
The research speaks to important topics about the nature of punishment, its embeddedness in society, culture and the economy and how this impacts upon prison rates and prison conditions. The project is high impact, generating unique data on: prison population trends, a documentary film on penal spectatorship, a large survey database on attitudes to punishment and focus groups for others to use and analyse. The project works with a number of key stakeholders who wish to better understand the use and meaning of prison in Russia and Kazakhstan today. These include government bodies such as the general prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan, national NGOs in the post-Soviet region, and international organizations such as the Council of Europe.
Firstly, how do we map and explain change in prison rates and conditions across the post Soviet region? How can we understand why, since the year 2000 and against all predictions, many prison populations across the former Soviet Union have gone into decline? What political economic factors might explain this? How did policy makers in Russia and Kazakhstan go about constructing a penal policy and what shaped their preferences? What might it tell us about the driving factors that can explain decarceration in other contexts?
Secondly, what do Russians and Kazakhs think about state-sanctioned punishment? Many political scientists believe that the rise of strong leaders and authoritarianism in Russia is a result of political culture. On this view, Russian attitudes - forged by history, geography and culture - favour particular undemocratic governance forms. Yet, despite the size and scale of the Gulag we know very little about how Russians or Kazakhs think about punishment, its predictability and severity, and how this mediates the relationship of citizens with their states and what citizens want from prisons today.
Thirdly, how is punishment constructed culturally in products such as TV shows, films, songs and prison museums? How do Russians and Kazakhs consume these products and what meanings are conveyed through them? Theorists have debated the ways in which punishment is also a cultural practice. Despite the fact that one of the legacies of the Gulag has been a visual and musical culture that has become popularized in the present day, there has been no systematic study of this in the former Soviet Union, still less on the various prison museums that have emerged there. This is an important question as how citizens spectate on prisons and punishment often from afar can help to maintain a system of power.
In investigating these questions, this research project aims to produce a unique, in depth study of the construction of punishment through state policy, societal attitudes and cultural forms in Russia and Kazakhstan. The project utilizes mixed methodologies taken from across academic disciplines. The methods include a social survey, interviews with policy makers, documentary analysis and desk-based statistical analysis as well as in situ cultural exploration at museum sites and interactions with cultural consumers.
The research speaks to important topics about the nature of punishment, its embeddedness in society, culture and the economy and how this impacts upon prison rates and prison conditions. The project is high impact, generating unique data on: prison population trends, a documentary film on penal spectatorship, a large survey database on attitudes to punishment and focus groups for others to use and analyse. The project works with a number of key stakeholders who wish to better understand the use and meaning of prison in Russia and Kazakhstan today. These include government bodies such as the general prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan, national NGOs in the post-Soviet region, and international organizations such as the Council of Europe.
Planned Impact
After the collapse of the USSR, the post-Soviet region went through a turbulent process of societal, political and economic change. This is especially true of criminal justice. Despite this, imprisonment, once so integral to the construction of Soviet power through the Gulag, has left an extraordinary and resilient legacy, in the societies, culture and economies of the former Soviet Union. This legacy has not yet been fully explored in the fields of world prison sociology and comparative penal policy. This ambitious project will produce a forward-looking agenda that links historical developments with current trends that are relevant for understanding concrete penal choices in the former Soviet Union (fSU) and the contexts within which they are made.
The programme of impact activities planned has been designed to deliver substantial capacity building by developing new networks of collaboration between a range of stakeholders allowing for knowledge exchange and longer term synergy between policy and third sector groups in two jurisdictions of the fSU. We will use the contacts and professional relationships that Slade, Piacentini, Omelchenko and Trochev have developed - over decades - with a range of organisations, researchers and policy makers in Europe, Russia and in Kazakhstan. Through this network we will document and disseminate the results of the project showing the social and cultural factors that impact on the endurance of prison systems and prison rates and the influence of these and other economic structural factors on penal policy decision making.
The direct impacts of this project are significant, as indicated by the high level of support for this work from a range of organisations both locally in Russia and Kazakhstan and internationally from for example the Council of Europe (see Letters of Support). Policy impact will be maintained through our international Co-Investigators who will oversee our local engagement. Our International Advisory Group will help support the reach of the learning amongst networks and contacts beyond this context, advising us on the implications in other world contexts. To ensure that impact is achieved in the medium term and longer term, we will conduct an impact survey designed by all project partners to be issued after the project into stakeholder perceptions of whether the research has improved knowledge and understanding about attitudes to punishment in the fSU.
A range of audiences will benefit from participation in events and opportunities to share experiences and understandings of punishment in the fSU targeted at improving public knowledge of prison populations and of attitudes to punishment in localities that share Gulag history. We will carefully document the changes in policy and practice and, crucially, share the learning about the process of change as well as the impacts achieved. We will have a range of dissemination channels to ensure the project process, findings and impacts are shared widely including websites, blogs, newsletters, briefing papers, storyboards, and social media, to ensure we reach everyone effectively as possible. A final symposium in London with the Institute of Criminal Policy Research will be an important opportunity to bring policy-makers and practitioners together from across the globe to share knowledge on the cultural and societal context of the making of penal policy.
Our impact plan is threefold:
POLICY ENGAGEMENT:
International Advisory Group
Tool-Kit for Measuring and Understanding Attitudes to Punishment
Symposium on Factors Affecting Decarceration
LOCAL ENGAGEMENT:
Exhibitions at six well-established Gulag museums
Six student symposia, four at museum sites and two in St Petersburg and Moscow
Two workshop engagement events in Kazahkstan and Russia for local policy and third sector audiences
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT:
Website and Social Media
Short Documentary Film on Penal Spectatorship
Online Survey and Impact Data
The programme of impact activities planned has been designed to deliver substantial capacity building by developing new networks of collaboration between a range of stakeholders allowing for knowledge exchange and longer term synergy between policy and third sector groups in two jurisdictions of the fSU. We will use the contacts and professional relationships that Slade, Piacentini, Omelchenko and Trochev have developed - over decades - with a range of organisations, researchers and policy makers in Europe, Russia and in Kazakhstan. Through this network we will document and disseminate the results of the project showing the social and cultural factors that impact on the endurance of prison systems and prison rates and the influence of these and other economic structural factors on penal policy decision making.
The direct impacts of this project are significant, as indicated by the high level of support for this work from a range of organisations both locally in Russia and Kazakhstan and internationally from for example the Council of Europe (see Letters of Support). Policy impact will be maintained through our international Co-Investigators who will oversee our local engagement. Our International Advisory Group will help support the reach of the learning amongst networks and contacts beyond this context, advising us on the implications in other world contexts. To ensure that impact is achieved in the medium term and longer term, we will conduct an impact survey designed by all project partners to be issued after the project into stakeholder perceptions of whether the research has improved knowledge and understanding about attitudes to punishment in the fSU.
A range of audiences will benefit from participation in events and opportunities to share experiences and understandings of punishment in the fSU targeted at improving public knowledge of prison populations and of attitudes to punishment in localities that share Gulag history. We will carefully document the changes in policy and practice and, crucially, share the learning about the process of change as well as the impacts achieved. We will have a range of dissemination channels to ensure the project process, findings and impacts are shared widely including websites, blogs, newsletters, briefing papers, storyboards, and social media, to ensure we reach everyone effectively as possible. A final symposium in London with the Institute of Criminal Policy Research will be an important opportunity to bring policy-makers and practitioners together from across the globe to share knowledge on the cultural and societal context of the making of penal policy.
Our impact plan is threefold:
POLICY ENGAGEMENT:
International Advisory Group
Tool-Kit for Measuring and Understanding Attitudes to Punishment
Symposium on Factors Affecting Decarceration
LOCAL ENGAGEMENT:
Exhibitions at six well-established Gulag museums
Six student symposia, four at museum sites and two in St Petersburg and Moscow
Two workshop engagement events in Kazahkstan and Russia for local policy and third sector audiences
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT:
Website and Social Media
Short Documentary Film on Penal Spectatorship
Online Survey and Impact Data
Organisations
- University of Strathclyde (Lead Research Organisation)
- Government of Kazakhstan (Collaboration)
- Museum of the Gulag (Project Partner)
- Nazarbayev University (Project Partner)
- Legal Policy Research Centre (Project Partner)
- Tomsk Local Heritage Museum (Project Partner)
- ALZHIR Museum and Memorial Complex (Project Partner)
- National Preventive Mechanism Kazakhstan (Project Partner)
- Birkbeck, University of London (Project Partner)
- University of Essex (Project Partner)
- University of Oxford (Project Partner)
- Nat Res Uni Higher School of Economics (Project Partner)
- Karagandy State University (Project Partner)
- National Research Tomsk State University (Project Partner)
Publications
Slade G
(2023)
Unlikely downsizers: The prison service's role in reversing mass incarceration in Kazakhstan
in Theoretical Criminology
Slade G
(2020)
The Limits of Authoritarian Modernisation: Zero Tolerance Policing in Kazakhstan
in Europe-Asia Studies
Butler M
(2018)
Self-governing prisons: Prison gangs in an international perspective
in Trends in Organized Crime
Kravtsova A
(2022)
Public Perceptions of Russia's Gulag Memory Museums
in Problems of Post-Communism
Slade G
(2024)
Our zona : the impact of decarceration and prison closure on local communities in Kazakhstan
in Post-Soviet Affairs
Slade G
(2024)
Ghosts of the Gulag: Negotiating Spectres of the Penal Past in Northern Russia
in The British Journal of Criminology
Piacentini L
(2023)
East is East? Beyond the Global North and Global South in Criminology
in The British Journal of Criminology
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(2022)
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Title | The Gulag's Shadow is the provisional title of a film we have commissioned with the film-maker Dimitrii Omel'chenko that began shooting in January 2020. |
Description | Filming started in January 2020. The film will span the spatial and temporal landscape of Russia to capture various 'audiences'' understanding of, and engagement with, the prison in society in Russia today. It will be concerned with 'penal spectatorship' in all it's forms, both local and national, within diverse communities to better understand how contemporary Russia comes to terms with it's past penal trauma. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Impacts not yet established as film is currently being made. |
Description | In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and at the time of writing, the invasion has led to untold deaths, devastation and significant political isolation of Russia. International sanctions have led to the project having to pause (directed by UKRI in Feb 2022). This has meant a loss of contact with the Russian teams and, critically, we have been unable to pay our teams for work conducted in Autumn 2021. We have not been able to complete the final stages of the study. While we recognise that the war is a critical moment of global reckoning, I wish to record here that this has and will continue to have a huge impact on the research partnerships. We are working to re-purpose the study until such a time that we can pay our teams for work previously done (i.e. when sanctions are lifted). Profssor Piacentini |
Exploitation Route | I am unable to answer this question in the current global crisis in Ukraine. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education |
Description | In the current climate of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, our work is starting to make non-academic impact in areas of policy where we have been invited to write a blog for the high-profile post-Soviet political science organisation PONARS (Slade). We are also making an impact in the EU context of the war with Piacentini being invited to write a blog for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of London. The blog will be on the Council of Europe removing Russia and the impact on penal reform in the region. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
Title | - The survey was piloted, first at a workshop involving NU SOC/ANT majors who provided feedback on the tool, and secondly with 60 households in Astana |
Description | Pilot survey work was conducted with the survey company in Kazakhstan called PORI. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | A highly successful pilot was carried out before the major survey work in Autumn 2019. |
Title | A sampling strategy was created to oversample former Gulag sites in the two countries |
Description | see above |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Our sampling strategy is world leading and has been informed by world experts. |
Title | A unique survey tool was created to measure attitudes to the Gulag and punitiveness in Kazakhstan and Russia |
Description | Following on from our previous research implementation tool, our survey instrument is unique in world criminology. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | We intend to publish the tools after project completion. |
Title | Statistical data gathering using new innovative methods hitherto not gathered in global criminology |
Description | Statistical data was collected from all 15 former Soviet countries concerning political economic variables and criminal justice statistics since 1991 |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | We have designed, implemented and delivered unique data on public attitudes to prisons and punishment in two former countries of the USSR. |
Title | Dr Dan Horn is compiling an online data base of prison trends and statistics for workstream 1. |
Description | As above, Dr Dan Horn, the RA on the project is compiling an accessible and detailed data base on global penal trends using data from the World Prison Brief and other global sources. This is technically complex work because data is gathered from multiple sources and there is no one, universal go-to source. The planned output intends to be the first of its kind in the world and will be open access for criminologists, policy makers and NGO groups engaged with penal trends and penal cultures. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The data base is under construction and will be available at the end of the project. |
Description | - A memorandum of cooperation was created to present to the Prison Service of Kazakhstan with a view to involving the service in the project in 2020 |
Organisation | Government of Kazakhstan |
Country | Kazakhstan |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | A new MOA was established between the project partners at the University of Nazarbayev, in Astana and the Kazakh prison service with the aim of fostering collaboration and building capacity. |
Collaborator Contribution | Meetings and networking events. |
Impact | An MOA was produced. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Title | We have launched a new Website that is dynamic, international sophisticated but accessible. |
Description | This new web-site has been designed by one of the best tech companies in Kazakhstan and will allow users to interface with maps, surveys, the projects outputs and with the wide range of public engagement activities we have delivered. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | User voice, user pick up, accessible engagemtn, a multi-language forum. |
URL | http://www.gulag.net |
Description | - A working trip was made after the conference to the Dolinka Gulag museum in Karaganda. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The working group aimed at capacity building and the project was welcomed by representatives of the local Akimat and featured on local television. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | American Society of Criminology Conference Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Dr Gavin Slade presented a paper "The Gulag as a Reputation System" at the annual American Society of Criminolgoy Conference, 2018, Atlanta Georgia. This was a specially convened panel of scholars working in Gulag Studies and Post-Soviet Imrprisonment to engage audiences on the legacies of Gulag culture and memorialisaion on the development of penal systems in the former USSR. This sparked a discussion about a) what is prison in Russia today and b) can we reach an intellectual consensus on Russia's political economy of punishment. This paper spoke directly to this project and, subsequently, has generated interest in the research from other leading Gulag scholars across the world (Wilson Bell, Jeff Hardy) and political scientists (Favid Skarbarek). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | American Society of Criminology Conference Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Professor Piacentini presented a paper "Shadowy prowler or reflexive scholar? : The precarious world of online prison research within and with Russian prisoners".at the annual American Society of Criminolgoy Conference, 2018, Atlanta Georgia. This was a specially convened panel of scholars working in Gulag Studies and Post-Soviet Imrprisonment to engage audiences on the legacies of Gulag culture and memorialisaion on the development of penal systems in the former USSR. This sparked a discussion about a) what is prison in Russia today, b) can we reach an intellectual consensus on Russia's political economy of punishment and c) how and which methdologies are useful, relevant and appropriate for contemporary research in Russia. This paper spoke directly to this project and, subsequently, has generated interest in the research from other leading Gulag scholars and methods experts across the world (Wilson Bell, Jeff Hardy). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Development of film |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | A concept paper for a documentary film to be produced in 2020 was created and a filmmaker selected to carry out the filming. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | During the year more than 30 expert in depth and on the record interviews were collected with respondents in Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, Moscow and St Petersburg |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professors Slade and Piacentini conducted fiedlwork in Moscow and Astana with former prison elites and policy makers as part of workstream 1. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Ethnographic observatoin |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Work began on ethnographic observation, starting in St Petersburg in July, two researchers from HSE St Petersburg spent a month at the State History Museum conducting focus groups, observations and interviews. Further observation began at a second site, the NKVD Museum in Tomsk in November |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Fieldwork in St Petersburg, Winter 2019 FOCUS GROUPS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The project partners, the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, delivered a range of Focus Groups in museums of former political oppression in St Petersburg over 2 months. This formed part of workstream 3, |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
Description | Fieldwork in Tomsk, Siberia, Autumn 2019 FOCUS GROUPS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The project partners, the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, delivered a range of Focus Groups in museums of former political oppression in Tomsk Siberia over 2 months. This formed part of workstream 3, |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Film presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Kravtsova A.N. Participation in a discussion on the topic of research in museums. V All-Russian Museum Forum on Children's, Adolescent and Family Programs (23-27.11.2021). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Film presentation and discussion about the three films produced for the Gulag Shadow study. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Omelchenko D.A., Kravtsova A.N. Assembly "Project about memory" in the Museum of the History of the Gulag. Film presentation and discussion (03.12.2021, offline event). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | International seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Piacentini July 2021 Punishment in Global Peripheries, University of Oxford, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Kravtsova A.N. Presentation "Museums of memory in the space of Russian cities" on Russian Conference "Forget and Remember: Forms and Limits of Soviet Memory" (01-06.02.2021, Virtual Event ) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Kravtsova A.N. Presentation "Museums of memory in the space of Russian cities" on Russian Conference "Forget and Remember: Forms and Limits of Soviet Memory" (01-06.02.2021, Virtual Event ) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the documentary: 'The long way home'. Workshop: 'Politics in motion: Using video and film-based practices in/on Eastern Europe' (May 20th, 2021, Virtual Event) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the documentary: 'The long way home'. Workshop: 'Politics in motion: Using video and film-based practices in/on Eastern Europe' (May 20th, 2021, Virtual Event) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Omelchenko E., Lisovskaya I, Kravtsova A. Assembly "Museums of memory of the Gulag in Russian cities." The event was held as part of the methodological seminar of the CYS "SOC UP" (30.03.2021, Virtual Event) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was an event on the methods used to make our films, Omelchenko E., Lisovskaya I, Kravtsova A. Assembly "Museums of memory of the Gulag in Russian cities." The event was held as part of the methodological seminar of the CYS "SOC UP" (30.03.2021, Virtual Event) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Participation in Visiting Fellowship Scheme at the Aleksanterii Institute for Slavic Studies, Helsinki, Finalnd (Slade) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Professor Slade has been a Visiting Fellow at Aleksanterii from Jan - March 2023 and involved in a series of public engagement events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Piacentini, L. Public engagement conference on the Gulag legacies in the former USSR, held at the University of Nazarbayev, Astana, Kazakhstan 07-11 Ocotber 2019. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Professor Piacentini participated in an event held at the University of Nazarbayev on the legacies of the Gulag in former Soviet countries. The event was led by Professor Gavin Slade, the International Co-I on the ESRC study, In the Gulag's Shadow. The event attracted presentations and attendees from criminal justice agencies, advocacy and activist groups and NGOs working in Kazakhstan and Russia. This was a policy event that enabled the team to make important connections to key stakeholders in the regions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Piacentini, Conference Paper and Invited Speaker for the event: Russian Readings https://russian-readings.org/event/crime-and-punishment-the-geographies-of-penitentiary-system-in-post-soviet-russia/ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The event was held March 13-15 2019. The panel session was opened by Laura Piacentini, Professor of Criminology at the University of Strathclyde. In her presentation, entitled Shadowy prowler or reflexive scholar? : The precarious world of online prison research within and with Russian prisoners, Prof. Piacentini talks of the EXTENDED impact and challenges that the scant attention to criminology in the contemporary Russian penal system and to the absence of Russia in theoretical and empirical understandings of world penal development has had on methodological approaches to the study of post-Soviet punishment, not least researcher positionality, self-reflexivity, ethical ambiguities, and sample sizes. Building from her decades ling work, and with an emphasis on the legacies of the Gulag, the paper seeks to both develop and disrupt conventional methodological frameworks for exploring the post-Soviet penal system by providing a critical, methodological account of new social media approaches to prison research in Russia. The findings draw down from a UK Leverhulme study into the sociology of rights consciousness amongst Russian prisoners who are engaging in online prisoner blogging using illicit communication devices. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Slade - leading on fieldwork and coordination in Moscow 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Slade is the lead international Co-I on the project. He spent two months in Autumn 2019 overseeing and particpating in fieldwork with the Russian reserah team at the Higher School of Econmics, St Petersburg. This involved: overseeing the fiedlwork, conducting engagement activities in musuems to build early networks, meeting museum curators, meeting local advocates for penal reform, meeting community groups and setting up links for research further into 2020. This was a hugely successful trip, not only in realising project deliverables but in ensuring that team were all well and managing the work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Kairbolat Eskaliev, former Deputy Director of the Kazakh Prison Service and former head of the Karaganda Oblast (region) prison service. Professor Slade also interviewed Mikhail Lirchikov who is the long-time governor of the Almaty Pre-Trial Detention Centre in the 2000s and deputy head of the Almaty Oblast prison service. These interviews were part of workstream 1. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning 2 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Mikhail Lirchikov who is the long-time governor of the Almaty Pre-Trial Detention Centre in the 2000s and deputy head of the Almaty Oblast prison service. These interviews were part of workstream 3. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning 3 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Husssein Valiev, The Head of the Kazakh Prison Service in the 1990s and the producer of the first penal code of Kazakhstan in 1997. These interviews were part of workstream 1. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professor Slade, Conference Paper and Invited Speaker for the event: Russian Readings https://russian-readings.org/event/crime-and-punishment-the-geographies-of-penitentiary-system-in-post-soviet-russia/ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The event was held on March 13-15, 2019. The closing contribution to the session was made by Dr Gavin Slade, Associate Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Prof. Slade discussed the state of criminology in Russia, criminological approaches to understanding prison rates and punitiveness, and analysed the factors that drive qualitative and quantitative dimensions of punishment in a country, offering a sociological perspective in his talk. The presentation involves comparison with other post-Soviet states in regards to punishment practices, notably with Georgia and Kazakhstan. Prof. Slade also drew attention to the ESRC-funded project 'In the Gulag's Shadow', that tries to bring together major strands of criminology to understand the trends in Russia, Kazakhstan, and across the former Soviet Union. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Professors Piacentini and Slade engaging in fieldwork and fieldwork planning Moscow, June 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Professors Piacentini and Slade interviewed the former head of the Kazakh Prison Service and Head of the Moscow Prison Service Pytor Posmakov. The interview was conducted as part of workstream 1. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Project web-site, Twitter feed and Facebook accounts established in November and December 2018. The web-site for the project: www.gulagshadow.org. Twitter account: @InGulag. Facebok account: "In the Gulag's Shadow" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The PI (Piacentini) and international Co-I (Slade) led on the development of a project web-site that is hosted by the lead institution, The University of Strathclyde. The PI is the lead on the Twitter account and the RA (Horn) oversees with the Facebook account. The intended purpose is to facilitate of these three forms of public engagement is to generate public awareness and engagement, knowledge mobilisation and to build capacity in prisons and punishment in the former USSR and in mass incarceration more broadly. The Twitter account has generated a significant following of nearly 200 diverse followers within two months of launching and is generating interest from academics, PhD students, activists and practitioners in global criminology. The Twitter account has also generated contact from experts who can help with networking into the fSU countries and this has led to questions and discussion about fieldwork sites and access increasing our understanding of the region. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
URL | http://www.gulagshadow.org/ |
Description | Round table |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Slade: Sep 2021 Collective Memory in Contemporary Russia, University of Uppsala, Sweden |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade July 2021 Punishment in Global Peripheries, University of Oxford, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade: Nov 2021 Centre for Russia & Central Asia Seminar Series, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Slade Feb 2022 Rethinking the Gulag, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, US |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade and Piacentini Mar 2022 Social Analysis of Penality across Boundaries, University of Glasgow, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Piacentini Mar 2022 Southernising Criminology, University of Oxford, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Special event of the pioneering penal reformer Valerii Abramking |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Yasaveev I.G. Presentation "After prison: Narratives of former prisoners about their state after release (based on research interviews)". Abramkin's Readings Conference (May 19, 2020, Virtual Event). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | The Gulag's Shadow study has produced three path breaking films on penal culture on post-Soviet Russia. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | An International film screening of world leading films (3) from the Gulag's Shadow study. Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the film: A Long Way Back: In the Shadow of the Gulags. Film Department, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University (June 23, 2021) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Work began on ethnographic observation, starting in St Petersburg in July, two researchers from HSE St Petersburg spent a month at the State History Museum conducting focus groups, observations and interviews. Further observation began at a second site, the NKVD Museum in Tomsk in November |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | This is work going towards work-stream three. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade Mar 2022 PSIR Seminar Series, Nazarbayev University, KZ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade Feb 2022 Exploring Incarceration Trends, University of Turin, Italy |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Slade Mar 2022 PSIR Seminar Series, Nazarbayev University, KZ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |