Round Table themed “1968–1988–2008: Pathways of Ideas” held on November 26, 2008 as part of the ongoing Gorbachev Readings project

     On November 26, 2008, as part of the ongoing Gorbachev Readings project, the Gorbachev Foundation hosted a Round Table with a theme “1968–1988–2008: Pathways of Ideas”, co-organized together with Memorial International Society and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Germany. The meeting discussed the parallels and differences between the events in the Czech Republic, Poland and the Soviet Union in 1968 and the protests that swept across Europe later that year. The speakers focused on the historical significance of the Prague Spring and its influence on the emergence of a democratic movement in the USSR, on the links between the democratic ideas of 1960-70ss and Perestroika and gave their assessments of the situation, challenges of and prospects for a democratic development of Russia.

     Participants in the Round Table included Mikhail Gorbachev, Milan Horáček, member of the European Parliament, Arseny Roginsky, historian and Chairman of Memorial Society, Chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseyeva,  historian Aleksey Berelovich, author Andrey Bitov,  Ralf Fücks, Co-Chairman of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, political scientist Tatiana Vorozheikina, Pavel Kudyukin, head of the State university – Higher School of Economics, Natalia Ivanova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Znamya magazine,  Aleksey Simonov, Chairman of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, social scientist Leonid Sedov, Valentin Gefter, Director of the Human Rights Institute,  human rights activist Sergey Kovalev, and others.

     Aleksandr Daniel of Memorial and Olga Zdravomyslova of the Gorbachev Foundation co-chaired the event.

     The proceedings of the Round Table will be posted on the Foundation’s website.