BETWEEN MEMORY AND STONE CONFERENCE

Registration is now open for the international conference Between Memory and Stone, taking place on 19 October 2026 at Musikbrauerei Berlin.

The conference brings together researchers, curators, educators, local politicians, lawyers, journalists, and civil society practitioners from Germany, Poland, and Ukraine to explore how our societies confront, reinterpret, and transform the Soviet legacy that continues to shape public space and collective memory.

Together, we discuss how public history and transnational cooperation can foster pluralistic, value-based cultures of remembrance across borders and translate historical reflection into civic practice.

Should we reclaim Soviet history and memory as ‘ours’ — and if so, how, and can we distinguish between our societies’ contribution to the colonial power structures within the system of Soviet domination, which was imposed primarily through Moscow’s totalitarian coercion? How might we distinguish and evaluate the national cultural motifs and narratives that persist within, or emerge against, the shared Soviet heritage of Poland, Ukraine, and Germany?

At the same time, to what extent can Soviet heritage be conceptualized as a security concern, given russia’s ongoing instrumentalization of history and memory as tools of hybrid warfare? Should memory politics within EU territory accordingly be understood as a dimension of security policy, with the re-contextualization of Soviet heritage framed as a matter of collective self-protection?

19 October 2026 
10:00–20:00
 Musikbrauerei Berlin, Greifswalder Str. 23A, 10405, Berlin

Full programme & registration: https://betweenmemoryandstone.com/conference/#register

Organised by Vitsche e.V. together with the Pilecki Institute Berlin and Past / Future / Art. The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt).