Participants

Viktor Viktorovich Aksiuchits [Istra, Moscow] is a philosopher associated with the Academy of Slavic Culture, and a political figure who formerly led the Russian Christian Democratic Movement and served in the Duma from 1990-1993. As an aide to Boris Nemtsov, he helped organize the Romanov burial ceremony that took place on July 17, 1998. Aksiuchits is the author of Khristianskaia demokratiia i prosveshchennyi patriotizm (Christian Democracy and Enlightened Patriotism, 1993), Vozrozhdenie Rossii (The Rebirth of Russia, 1994), and Ideokratiia v Rossii (Ideocracy and Russia, 1995).

Vladimir Nikolaevich Alekseev [Tomsk] is head of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the State Public Library of Scientific and Technical Literature, Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk. A Docent in the Literature Department of Novosibirsk State University, Alekseev is the author or editor of more than a dozen publications on Siberian history and bibliography, including Knizhnaia kul'tura Respubliki Sakha (The Literary Culture of the Sakha Republic, 1993), Russkaia kniga v dorevoliutsionnoi Sibiri (The Russian Book in Pre-Revolutionary Siberia, 1996), and Kniga i literatura (The Book and Literature, 1997).

Lev Aleksandrovich Anninsky [Istra] is a literary critic and essayist, serves on the board of the "thick journal" Druzhba narodov, and is a frequent contributor to journals such as Rodina and Ogonek. He is the author of a number of books on Russian literature, theater, and film, including: Lokti i kryl'ia. Literatura 80-kh (Elbows and Wings. Literature of the 1980s, 1989), Osmyslit' kul't Stalina (Making Sense of the Stalin Cult, 1989), and Ikh bor'ba za vlast' (Their Struggle for Power, 1996).

John H. Brown [Tomsk, Moscow] is Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy, Moscow, with prior service in Warsaw, Prague, Belgrade, and Kiev. Trained as a historian, he is working on a book about Russian-American relations at the beginning of the twentieth century and is co-author of The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union: a Guide to Manuscript and Archival Materials in the U.S.

Vladimir Georgievich Baranovsky [Moscow] is Deputy Director of IMEMO.

James H. Billington [Istra, Tomsk, Moscow] is the Librarian of Congress. A historian of Russian culture and a former professor at Harvard and Princeton Universities, he is the author of Fire in the Minds of Men, The Icon and the Axe, Russia Transformed: Breakthrough to Hope, and The Face of Russia, a companion volume to his 1998 three-part PBS series of the same name. Both The Icon and the Axe and The Face of Russia have been translated into Russian.

Igor Borisovich Chubais [Moscow] is a philosopher, Director of the Center for the Study of Russia, editor of Novye vekhi, and on the faculty of the Institute of People's Friendship. He was a member of the democratic movement from 1987-1992, working for the introduction of a multi-party system for the new civic society. He has published extensively on problems of philosophy, sociology, and politics, including the book Ot russkoi idei-k idee novoi Rossii (From the Russian Idea to the Idea of a New Russia, 1996) and an updated version called Rossiia v poiskakh sebia (Russia in Search of Itself, 1998).

Sergei Vladislavovich Chugrov [Moscow] is a historian and researcher at IMEMO, where he is Deputy Chief Editor of the Institute's scientific journal, Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia (The World Economy and International Relations). Among his publications is the book Rossiia i zapad: na khode k vzaimovospriiatiiu (Russia and the West: the Path to Mutual Acceptance).

James F. Collins [Istra, Moscow] was the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation from September 1997 until July 2001. A historian by training and a career diplomat, Collins previously served in Moscow from 1973-5 as Second Secretary, and from 1990-3 as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'Affaires, and was in charge of the Embassy during the August 1991 coup attempt. Prior his being named Ambassador, he was Ambassador-at-large to the Newly Independent States.

Natalia Borisovna Ivanova [Istra] is a literary critic, essayist and deputy editor of the journal Znamia. Her books on Russian literature include: Tochka zreniia. O proze poslednikh let (Point of View: Recent Prose, 1988), Voskreshenie nenuzhnykh veshchei (The Revival of Unnecessary Things, 1990), and Smekh protiv strakha (Laughter in the Face of Fear, 1990). She founded the Academy of Critics in Moscow, which annually awards one of the most prestigious literary prizes in Russia.

Mikhail Vladimirovich Kaluzhskii [Tomsk] is Director of the Novosibirsk Branch of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation). A member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, Kaluzhskii also writes about culture and about projects involving computers and Internet access.

Aleksei Alekseevich Kara-Murza [Moscow] heads the Department of Political Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as being Professor of Philosophy at Moscow State University. He has written several books on the question of Russian identity, including Reformator, Russkie o Petre I (The Reformer: Russians on the Subject of Peter I, 1994), which he co-authored with I. V. Polyakov, and Kak vozmozhna Rossii (How is Russia Possible?, 1999).

Yuri Fedorovich Kariakin [Istra] is a former member of the Duma and a leading literary scholar and teacher, best-known for his work on Fedor Dostoevsky, including Dostoevskii v kanun XXI vek (Dostoevsky on the Eve of the Twenty-first Century, 1989).

Aleksandr Petrovich Kazarkin [Tomsk] is a Professor and Doctor of Philology, and Chair of the Department of Twentieth-Century Literature, Tomsk State University. He has written about regionalism, Eurasianism, self-determination, and is the author of several books on Siberian cultural originality and Russian literature, including Pul's vremeni (The Pulse of Time, 1985), and Gde ta zemlia chistaia-o prirode i literature Sibiri (Where is that Unspoiled Land: the Nature and Literature of Siberia, 1988).

Father Leonid Kharaim [Tomsk] is the Nastoiatel' (senior priest, superior) of the Peter-Paul Church in the Tomsk Diocese, and is a member of the advisory council of the Medical University.

Nelli Aleksandrovna Krechetova [Tomsk] is a department head in the Tomsk Oblast Administration and Deputy to Governor Viktor M. Kress.

Viktor Borisovich Kuvaldin [Moscow] has a doctoral degree in philosophy. He is a professor, a member of the board of the Gorbachev Foundation, and director of its political programs.

Eleanora L. L'vova [Tomsk] is Chair of the History Department, Tomsk State University. She has written and edited works on cultural space, ethnicity, demography, and regional ethnology, including Traditsionnoe mirovozzrenie tiurkov Iuzhnoi Sibiri (The Traditional World View of the Turkic Peoples of Southern Siberia, 1989).

Viktor Moiseyevich Muchnik [Tomsk] is Editor-in-Chief at the TV-2 Television Company in Tomsk. He is a docent in history at Tomsk State University and is author of the book V poiskakh utrachennogo smysla istorii (In Search of the Lost Meaning of History, 1986).

Kathleen F. Parthé [Istra, Tomsk, Moscow] is Professor of Russian and Director of Russian Studies at the University of Rochester. She has held the Brugler Chair for Distinguished Teaching at the UR, and served on the Advisory Council of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. Parthé is the author of Russian Village Prose: the Radiant Past, and of a forthcoming book, Russia's Dangerous Texts: Politics Between the Lines.

Boris Nikolaevich Poyzner [Tomsk] is Chairman of the Department of Quantum Electronics and Photonics at Tomsk State University. He has written about the psycho-social aspects of identity formation and social organization, and has contributed to collections about the Russian intelligentsia, including Intelligentsiia v rossiiskom obshchestve i universitete (The Intelligentsia in Russian Society and in the University, 1994).

Nikolai Sergeevich Rozov [Tomsk] is a Doctor of Philosophy and historian at the Novosibirsk branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is author of Struktura tsivilizatsii i tendentsii mirovogo razvitia (The Structure of Civilization and Trends in World Development, 1992), and of articles in Voprosy filosofii (Questions in Philosophy).

Aleksandr Vadimovich Rubtsov [Istra] is director of the Interdisciplinary Center "Volkhonka, 14" (which studies ideology, public policy, and social consciousness) at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the presidential commission charged with finding a national idea, and both edited and contributed to Rossiia v poiskakh idei: analiz pressy (Russia in Search of an Idea: an Analysis of the Press, 1997).

Olga Aleksandrovna Rychkova [Tomsk] is a poet affiliated with Tomsk State University and an analyst for Gazprombank in Tomsk.

Andrei Markovich Sagalaev [Tomsk] is a Professor, Doctor of History, and Chair of the General History Department at Tomsk State Pedagogical University. He is the author and editor of works on post-Soviet Siberian ethnic identity, Siberian ethnology, and on the Ural-Altaic peoples of Russia, including Uralo-altaiskaia mifologia (Ural-Altaic Mythology, 1991), and Religiia naroda mansi (The Religion of the Mansi people, 1986).

Georgy Aleksandrovich Satarov [Istra] is president of the INDEM Information Science for Democracy) think tank and is a former presidential advisor. He chaired President Yeltsin's commission to find a national idea, and is chief editor of Rossiia v poiskakh idei: analiz pressy (Russia in Search of an Idea: an Analysis of the Press, 1997).

Nikolai Petrovich Shmelev [Istra] is a Professor and Doctor of Economics at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, and is known for his critique of the Soviet economy that appeared in Novyi mir in 1987. Elected to the USSR Congress of Peoples' Deputies in 1989, Shmelev was a key economic advisor during the Gorbachev era, and is the author of Turning Point: Revitalizing the Soviet Economy (1989). He also writes fiction, including the novel V puti ia nezamog (I Fell Ill Along the Way, 1995).

Valerii Aleksandrovich Tishkov [Istra] is the director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is a frequent contributor to such journals as Voprosy filosofii. His numerous publications include: Sreda i kul'tura (Environment and Culture, 1994), Narody Rossii (The Peoples of Russia, 1995), Chechenskii krizis (The Chechen Crisis, 1995), and Ethnicity and Power (1996).

Aleksandr Nikolaevich Yakovlev [Istra] is a politician, historian, and diplomat. He was Soviet ambassador to Canada, 1973-1983, and a member of the Politburo; and, as Gorbachev's chief ideologist, he was known as the "godfather of glasnost." Yakovlev chairs the Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, heads the International Democracy Foundation, and is founder and chairman of the Russian Party of Social Democracy. Yakovlev is the author of over twenty-five books, including: From Truman to Reagan (1985), The Fate of Marxism in Russia (1993), Gor'kaia chasha (Bitter Cup, 1994), and A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (2002) as well as hundreds of articles and pamphlets.

Leonid Sergeevich Yanovich [Tomsk] is a historian and the general director of the Siberian publishing house Khronograf in Novosibirsk.

Grigory Alekseevich Yavlinsky [Istra] is an economist and politician, chairman of the Center for Economic and Political Studies in Moscow, and leader of the Yabloko Party since its founding in 1993. He is former deputy prime minister of the RSFSR (1990), and is a deputy to the State Duma. His works on Russian reform include Ekonomika Rossii: nasledstvo i vozmozhnosti (Russia's Economy: Legacy and Potential, 1995).

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