The aim of this presentation is to show how the Yugoslav crisis served as a test for Russia’s place in the post-Cold War European order. Indeed, the wars in the former Yugoslavia began just as the Russian Federation was establishing strong ties with the West. When Yugoslavia imploded, the Russian Federation, despite facing a severe economic crisis, hoped to be a key player in European affairs and a vital mediator in this crisis. However, Russia very quickly proved to be a marginal player in the management of the Yugoslav crisis. We shall put forward several hypotheses to explain this: the structural weakening of Russia, but also that of the line proposed by Paris and London, as well as the unreliability of the Serbs. We will focus in particular on how Russian decision-makers perceived this crisis, seeing it as revealing the weakening of Russia’s position in Europe. This paper is based on Russian, French, German, British and American archival documents, as well as on a corpus of memoirs of Russian diplomats.

Online-Lecture by Sophie Momzikoff (Sorbonne University, Paris)

The Web Lecture Series “Transregional Histories of the Yugoslav Wars” is part of the research project “Reordering Yugoslavia, Rethinking Europe”, which is organized by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) together with the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies.

LOCATION
You are invited to join the lecture and discussion via Zoom.
Meeting-ID: 971 1099 7169
Kenncode: 850967

REGISTRATION
No pre-registration is required for participation.