The recording of the plenary session of the international academic and practical conference “After Totalitarianism: Museum, Memory and the Belarusian Perspective” is now available on the Free Belarus Museum’s YouTube channel. The conference took place in Warsaw on 8–9 October 2026.
The plenary session addressed “Remembering Repression and Revisionism in the Post-Totalitarian World.” Researchers and museum professionals from Czechia, Poland, Albania and Moldova discussed how countries across Central and Eastern Europe shape their memories of state violence, political repression and the communist past. The discussion explored how museum narratives change following political turning points, the role of museums in preserving the memory of victims, and the impact of historical revisionism on contemporary memory culture.
The session featured:
* Klára Pinerová, Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences — “Who Owns the Memory of Repression? The State, Victims’ Organisations and the Creation of Museums of Communism in Germany and Czechia”;
* András Mink, Blinken OSA Archive at Central European University — “Historical Revisionism in Post-Totalitarian Times: The Case of Hungary”;
* Enriketa Papa Pandelejmoni, University of Tirana — “Sites of Memory and Musealisation: The Formation of Albania’s Post-Communist Memory Landscape”;
* Ludmila D. Cojocaru, National Museum of History of Moldova and Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions — “Stalinist Repression, Deportations, Oral History and the Representation of Victims’ Memory in Museums”;
* Virgiliu Birladeanu, Institute of History, Moldova State University — “Soviet Political Repression, the Memory of Victims and the Reinterpretation of the Past in Moldova.”
The session was moderated by Pavel Tereshkovich, historian, cultural anthropologist and adviser on education and science to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Office.
The conference provided a platform for international dialogue among researchers, museum professionals and experts in memory politics, difficult heritage, repression and museum work in exile.
▶️ Watch the full recording of the plenary session on YouTube
https://youtu.be/JRaA3G8c4Cc?si=wegzSZW7tyI4C8vA
Organiser: Free Belarus Museum, Warsaw.
Venue: Foksal 11/1, Warsaw.
Conference dates: 8–9 October 2026.
The conference was co-funded by the Mieroszewski Centre as part of its 4th Open Competition.
