On July 9, in the plenary hall of the Saxony Landtag in Dresden a colloquium of the joint commission for the study of modern history in Russian-German relations met to discuss “German-Soviet Friendship with the German Democratic Republic: Expectations and Reality”.
Presentations were made by Marianne Birthler, head of the federal Stasi archives (Germany); head of the German Historical Research Center, Professor Yakov Drapkin (Russia); Jan Foitzik, researcher for the Institute of Modern History (Russia-Germany); historian Galina Voronenkova, professor of the Journalism Department at Moscow State University; and publicist Vladislav Hedeler.
The discussion of the presentations grew into a heated and open discussion, touching upon painful themes in Soviet-German relations as well as interesting examples of cultural dialog and the emergence of sincere friendship between the peoples of these countries, which were once at war.
On July 11 historians from Russia paid a visit to the German-Russian Institute of Culture. Head of the history department at Volgograd State University and director of the German Historic Research Center Nina Vaschkau and Professor Alexander Boroznyak of Lipetsk State University spoke about ongoing projects involving cooperation between Russian researchers and universities and academic centers in Germany.
The visitors were shown the institute’s productions “Russian Traces in Dresden” 9brochure and DVD) and “Renowned Saxons in Russia” (a multimedia presentation).
During the meeting, they discussed the idea of creating a Dresden Dialog – a meeting of historians, sociologist and politicians devoted to the prospects of Russian Germans in Russia and Russian Compatriots in Germany in the 21st century.
