State Propaganda behind the Iron Curtain

Leading historians of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc Orlando Figes and Jeremy Hicks, together with satirical cartoonist Andrjez Krauze explore the extraordinary world of propaganda in the communist era: the techniques, the impact at home and abroad, the publications, posters and the films. Chaired by Misha Glenny.

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. His award-winning books, including A People's Tragedy: Russian Revolution 1891-1924,  Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia Crimea, The Last Crusade and Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag, have been widely acclaimed and published in many languages.

Jeremy Hicks is Senior Lecturer in Russian, School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of Mikhail Zoshchenko and the Poetics of Skaz; Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film and First Films Of The Holocaust; Soviet Cinema and the Genocide of the Jews, 1938–1946.

Andrzej Krauze is a political cartoonist, illustrator and satirist. His career began in Poland, but after 1981 he was unable to publish his political cartoons in his native country and he settled in Britain. His work has appeared in the New Statesman, The Times, The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and since 1989, in The Guardian. He won the Victoria and Albert Museum Award for Illustration in 1996, and the Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Award in 2003.

Misha Glenny is an investigative journalist, author and broadcaster, who was Central Europe correspondent for The Guardian and later reported extensively for the BBC during the breakup of Yugoslavia.  He now specialises in writing about global organised crime.  He is the author of widely acclaimed McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime and DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia.

Please note that Professor Anne Applebaum is unfortunately no longer able to take part in this event.