50 Years of the Helsinki Accords: Dissidence, Exile, and the Legacy of the Helsinki Process
This year, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Helsinki Accords and the launch of the Helsinki Process, which significantly changed the political situation in Europe, leading to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc from 1989 to 1991. Through follow-up meetings of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), many government representatives and non-governmental organizations in the West could criticize the undemocratic regimes in the East, particularly for their violations of human and civic rights. Alongside politicians, intellectuals, media, and human rights organizations engaged in the Helsinki Process and worked together with dissidents from the other side of the Iron Curtain. An important but so far unheeded actor was the political and cultural multi-generational exile from Central and Eastern Europe. These exile groups possessed political, cultural, and social capital to affect the Western political public in favor of their interpretation of the Helsinki Process. Moreover, the exiles were the essential mediators between the West and the dissidents in their homelands as they secured communication, information transfer, and material support in both directions.
Not only these and other topics will be discussed by former actors of dissidence and exile: Jan Kavan, Ivanka Lefeuvre, Martin Palouš, Jacques Rupnik, and Anna Šabatová.
The debate will be moderated by historian Michal Kopeček (Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences).
The debate will take place on Tuesday, October 21, at 5 p.m. in the Institut français de Prague (Francouzský institut v Praze, Štěpánská 35, 110 00 Prague 1). It will be in Czech and interpreted into English.
If you are interested in participating, please pre-register here.
The debate is organized by the Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the French Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (CEFRES), and the French Institute in Prague.
This event is part of the programme Strategy AV21 – Identities in the World of Wars and Crises.
