Helene Henze

Doctoral project

"Homines sovietici? – The German minority in the Soviet Union after 1956"

The year 1956 was a turning point not only for Soviet politics in general, but also for those national minorities of the Soviet Union that were considered "unreliable" by the Stalin regime and therefore collectively exiled as "enemies of the state". Their gradual re-naturalization, following the decisions of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, allowed families to be reunited and livelihoods to be improved through free movement and better access to education. Looking at the period known as the "Thaw" and the Brezhnev era, this dissertation explores the underlying motives of this late, if only partial, rehabilitation.
Focusing on the geographic region of Central Asia, it firstly aims to identify the economic constraints of wartime and post-war nationality politics, particularly in relation to the German minority. Secondly, it seeks to outline the state-controlled socialization processes that were implemented to facilitate the reintegration of the formerly repressed into Soviet society. The project aims to ascertain whether the adoption and espousal of behaviors and attitudes perceived to be distinctly "Soviet" were met with reward. Given the resistance mounted by some German groups in the peripheries, it is pertinent to inquire whether these processes were intended to erase primary cultural affiliations. Thirdly, this project approaches Sovietization "from below." It examines the adaptation strategies of Soviet-German individuals from diverse social backgrounds and generational cohorts via the life-history approach. In addition to qualitative research, which employs personal narratives for the purposes of gaining insight into the everyday life and practices of individuals or groups within the context of their socio-cultural environment, the majority of my research will be conducted through an examination of archival sources. These will provide information on political, economic and propaganda decisions that were made in Moscow, Almaty, Bishkek and Tashkent, as well as at the regional level. The overarching objective is to determine the essence and contingency of "Sovietness" among groups whose primary sense of belonging was forged by collective trauma or the transgenerational transmission of trauma. The project's social added value lies in its ability to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the mentality of “Russia Germans” living in Germany today.

 

Curriculum vitae:

Since 2024 PhD candidate at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and member of the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies. 2020 – 2023: Doctoral research assistant at the Nordost-Institute and member of the scientific research network "Ambivalences of the Soviet". 2018 - 2020: Postgraduate teaching traineeship at the Free State of Saxony, completed with Second State Examination. 2008 - 2017: Studies of History, English and American Literature and Culture, Film Studies at the University of Freiburg, University of Heidelberg and Yale University, USA, completed with First State Examination.

 

Awards:

• 09/2024 – 04/2025: Doctoral fellowship by the Dr. Roswitha and Hermann Zeilinger Foundation
• 10/2020 – 09/2023: Doctoral position funding by the VolkswagenFoundation and the Ministry of Science and Culture of the Federal State of Lower Saxony, Germany
• 09/2010 – 12/2010: KOOR/BEST full stipend for a teaching assistant position in the United Kingdom
• 09/2009 – 05/2010: Full exchange scholarship Yale University, USA

 

Presentations:

2024
"Russia German Dissidents", report (Roundtable "Диссиденты и эмиграция", Zukunft Memorial e.V.) 13.02.2024, Berlin, Germany

2023
"The Estonian Russia Germans Protest Movement", conference report ("Disentangling Eurasia Russian Empire, Soviet Union and their Successors", Third Tallinn Summer School in Soviet History and Culture, 28.07. - 04.08.2023), 01.08.2023, Tallinn, Estonia.
"Sovetskije ljudi? - Die Russlanddeutschen und andere nationale Minderheiten im Späten Sozialismus", conference report (30. Tagung der Jungen Osteuropaexpert*innen, Leibniz-Institute for East and Southeast Europe, IOS, 29.06. – 01.07.2023), 30.06.2023, Regensburg, Germany.

2021
"Die Nachfolgestaaten der Sowjetunion und ihre Minderheitenpolitik", panel discussant (Conference "Das Ende der Sowjetunion und die Folgen für die Russlanddeutschen", Deutsche Gesellschaft e.V. / Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur), 18.11.2021, online / Berlin, Germany.
"Die Land-Stadt-Migration der Russlanddeutschen und anderer nationaler Minderheiten, 1953-1982", conference report (1. Conference of the scientific research network "Ambivalences of the Soviet", 03.02. – 05.02.2021), 04.02.2021, online.

 

Positions, memberships:

Since 2023 PhD student representative at the Association of Historians in Germany (Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, VHD)