The Red Cross and the Red Star: Humanitarianism and Communism in the 20th c.

The Red Cross and the Red Star: Humanitarianism and Communism in the 20th c.

Organizer
Jean-François Fayet, Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, Marie Cugnet, Donia Hasler
ZIP
1700
Location
Fribourg
Country
Switzerland
Takes place
In Attendance
From - Until
18.01.2024 - 19.01.2024
By
Hasler Donia, Université de Fribourg

La Croix et l’étoile rouge : humanitaire et communisme au 20e siècle

The Red Cross and the Red Star: Humanitarianism and Communism in the 20th c.

Throughout the 20th century, humanitarianism and Communism developed complex relations made up of confrontations, challenges and (often frustrated) opportunities both at an ideological and practical level. This conference aims to explore the reciprocal interactions between the Red Cross Movement and Communist (or more generally of Marxist inspiration) regimes and organizations, between 1917 and 1991.

Programm

9h00 – 9h30 : Introduction – « Humanitaire et communisme : histoire parallèle et croisée » (Jean-François Fayet, Université de Fribourg)

9h30 – 11h00 : Panel 1 – Ideological Confrontations
Chair : Valérie Gorin (Geneva Center of Humanitarian Studies)

Marek Lambert (Université Paris 1). « La société de la Croix-Rouge polonaise et la matérialisation d’une frontière politico-humanitaire de la Baltique aux Carpates »
Sébastien Farré (Université de Genève). « Le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge et “l’Espagne rouge” durant la Guerre civile. L’impartialité à l’épreuve de l’anticommunisme. »
Irène Herrmann (Université de Genève). « Dépasser les malentendus ? Quand le CICR se livrait à l'analyse conceptuelle du communisme. »

11h00 – 11h15 : Pause / Coffee break

11h15 – 12h45 : Panel 2 – Beyond Divisions
Chair : Grant Mitchell / Mélanie Blondin (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies)

Kimberly Lowe (Lesley University). « Red Cross Epidemic Relief in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War, 1919-1920 »
Kristina Gunne (Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin). « The Tracing Services of the German Red Cross in the Federal Republic and the GDR. A History of Relations between Humanitarian Mission and Politics in the Cold War, 1946-1994 »
Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps (Universités de Genève et de Fribourg). « Le mouvement de la Croix-Rouge et les socialismes africains : incompatibilités ou opportunités ? »

12h45 – 14h15 : Lunch

14h15 – 15h15 : Panel 3 – The National Red Cross Societies in the Former Russian Empire: Between Sovietisation and Exil
Chair : Gwendal Piégais (University College Dublin)

Jo Laycock (University of Manchester) & Naira Sahakyan (Armenian Genocide Museum Institute). « Between Nation and Communism: The Soviet Armenian Red Cross in the 1920s »
Antonina Skydanova (Université de Fribourg). « Ukrainian Red Cross in 1919-1929: The Transformation of the Red Cross Organization in Soviet Ukraine »

15h15 – 16h15 : Panel 4 – Les Croix-Rouge politiques / Political Red Cross Societies
Chair : Jean-François Fayet (Université de Fribourg)

Viktoria Sukovata (Kharkiv National Karazin University). « The Political Red Cross in Early Stalinist Time: The Paradoxes and Forms of Public Solidarity »
Corentin Lahu (Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté). « Le Secours rouge international : une “Croix-Rouge politique” ? »

16h15 – 16h45 : Coffee break

16h45 – 17h45 : Panel 5 – Red Cross and Civil Defense in Socialist States
Chair : Irène Herrmann (Université de Genève)

Siobhán Hearne (University of Manchester). « Militarised Humanitarianism: The Soviet Red Cross and the Civil Defence Movement in the Brezhnev-era USSR »
Ana Kladnik (University of Graz). « Red Cross, Civil Protection, and the Concept of Peace from Above and Below (Socialist Yugoslavia (Slovenia), 1970s) »

19h30 : Dinner

Friday 19th January
9h00 – 10h00 : Panel 6 – The Soviet Red Cross : An Influential Tool
Chair: Katja Doose (Université de Fribourg)

Hanna Matt (University of Manchester). « Reconstituting Relief: Famine Refugees and the Russian Red Cross in Post-Revolutionary Central Asia, 1921-1924 »
Anna Mazanik (German Historical Institute Moscow/LMU Munich). « Medicine and the Cold War in the Pacific Borderlands: Soviet Red Cross Hospitals in China around 1950 »

10h00 – 10h15 : Coffee break

10h15 – 12h15 : Panel 7 – Socialist Voices within the Mouvement
Chair : Donia Hasler (Université de Fribourg)

Caroline Reeves (Harvard University Fairbank Center). « The PRC and the Red Cross Movement, 1949-1966 »
Marie Cugnet (Université de Fribourg). « Les Croix-Rouges vietnamiennes communistes : de la construction du communisme vietnamien à l’insertion dans le mouvement Croix-Rouge »
Severyan Dyakonov (New York University). « The International League of the Red Cross Film Festival in Socialist Bulgaria, 1965-1991 »
Carna Brkovic (University of Mainz). « Yugoslav interventions in the international humanitarian debates in the 1970s »

12h15 – 13h45 : Lunch

13h45 – 15h15 : Panel 8 : Alongside the Communists
Chair : Sébastien Farré (Université de Genève)

Katharina Seibert (University of Leipzig). « Communism at the Sickbed, the Red Cross in the Rearguard? »
Anastasia Koukouna (Université de Fribourg). « Les opérations de la Croix-Rouge en Grèce occupée et les initiatives humanitaires des communistes »
Irène Gimenez (Université Paris-Est Créteil - IMAGER). « Le Comité International de la Croix-Rouge face aux prisonnier‧es politiques et victimes de torture dans l’Espagne franquiste : actions de solidarité et mise en réseau »

15h30 – 15h45 : Coffee break

15h45 – 17h15 : Panel 9 – Prisoners of War, Political Detainees and the ICRC.
Chair : Neville Wylie (University of Stirling)
Jean-Michel Turcotte (Canadian Department of National Defence). « Prisoners of War or Prisoners of the Cold War? The International Committee of the Red Cross and War Captivity in Korea, 1950–1953 »
Youcef Hamitouche (University Algiers 3). « The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Algerian war 1954-1962 »
Marcel Berni (Swiss Military Academy, ETHZ). « The ICRC, Communist Captives and Carceral Visits During the Second Indochina War »

17h15 : Conclusion

https://projects.unifr.ch/redcross-redstar/?page_id=535
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Published on
20.12.2023
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