MURRAY, Ky. – The Department of History at Murray State University will host Russian and Soviet History Specialist Dr. Karen Petrone, University of Kentucky professor of history, for the eighth annual Sid Easley Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. in Wrather Auditorium.
The Department of History’s lecture series is named in honor of Sid Easley, Murray State alumnus, former Murray State University Board of Regents chair, the first Golden Horseshoe Award recipient and long-time supporter of the Murray State Department of History. Thanks to the generosity of the Easley family, the lecture is free and open to the public. A dessert reception and book signing will follow in the Charles and Anne Wrather Hoke Mezzanine on the second floor of Wrather Hall.
Dr. Karen Petrone is professor of history and Zantker Professor of Jewish History at the University of Kentucky. She is also the co-director of the UK-JHF Holocaust Education Initiative. Petrone is the author of “Life Has Become More Joyous, Comrades: Celebrations in the Time of Stalin” (2000) and “The Great War in Russian Memory” (2011). She is currently completing a book on war memory in Putin’s Russia.
Petrone’s talk will be based on the book she is currently writing about Vladimir Putin and Russian Memory of the Second World War. Although it began more than 85 years ago, the Second World War (or the Great Patriotic War as Russians call it) is central to contemporary Russian nationalism and patriotism and to the legitimacy of the Russian state. Vladimir Putin has even used the memory of the Second World War to justify Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The intensity of Russia’s preoccupation with World War II, and the ways that the war has been sacralized, mythologized and reimagined as contemporary living history are unique to Russia. This presentation explores the crucial role that memory of the Second World War plays in Russia today.
“Dr. Petrone’s lecture, which has both historical and contemporary dimensions, should help us better understand the Russian past and present and how leaders manipulate historical memory to justify their actions,” said Dr. Jim Humphreys, Murray State University professor of history. “It will show that historical ‘truth’ is actually malleable and that it is hotly contested in our world today.”
For more information about the event, contact Dr. Jim Humphreys, Department of History at jhumphreys@murraystate.edu or Dr. Tina Bernot, Office of Development at cbernot@murraystate.edu. For more information about the Department of History, visit murraystate.edu/history.
Gifts to support the Sid Easley lecture fund may be made online at murraystate.edu/giving or by check made payable to the Murray State University Foundation and mailed to the Murray State Office of Development at 200 Heritage Hall, Murray, KY 42071.