Modernisation and Empire in the History of the Caucasus, 26-28 May, 2026

Conference | May 26–May 28, 2026 | Basel

Organization:
Dr. des. Kai Johann Willms
Support:
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); Voluntary Academic Society Basel (FAG);
Research Fund Junior Researchers of the University of Basel; Max Weber Foundation – Max
Weber Network Eastern Europe (MWNO)
Assistance:
Saskia Heyn, Chanda Nadeem, Micha Steiner
Venue:
Institute for European Global Studies, Riehenstrasse 154, 4058 Basel, Room 00.022

The conference explores how ‘modernisation’ was practised and experienced in the Caucasus region during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the extent to which ‘modernisation’ was both a product of and a challenge to imperial rule. In the Russian Empire before 1917, the Caucasus was one of the peripheral regions that were considered ‘backward’ and ‘oriental’ by imperial elites and where the imperial administration attempted to assert its supposed civilisational superiority by pursuing an agenda of socioeconomic and cultural ‘modernisation’. Although the Soviet Union officially denounced imperialism, it continued to rely on a logic of raising the region to the civilisational level of Central Russia while extracting natural resources from the Caucasus for the former imperial core. However, the discourse of ‘modernisation’ served not only to legitimise imperial rule; the local population of the Caucasus had their own visions of ‘modernity’, which did not necessarily align with those of Tsarist and Soviet elites.

Find full program here

Nino Tsertsvadze

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