Una Bergmane (Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki)
This keynote reinterprets the disintegration of the Soviet Union by foregrounding the politics of invisibility and silencing embedded in its imperial order. While conventional explanations emphasise economic stagnation, elite conflict, or the unintended consequences of reform, this analysis centres on how the Soviet system systematically marginalised and obscured the suffering of nationalities positioned at the periphery of its ethnic hierarchy. Even during perestroika—often celebrated as an era of democratisation—the state’s commitment to preserving imperial cohesion curtailed genuine recognition of these grievances. Official discourses redirected public and international attention away from structural inequities, thereby reproducing longstanding hierarchies. In this constrained environment, minoritised and peripheral nationalities cultivated cross-republican networks of solidarity, forging horizontal connections that challenged the centralising ethos of the Soviet state. These alliances generated alternative political visions, from demands for enhanced sovereignty to calls for full independence. The keynote concludes by considering how such solidarities offer critical insights into resisting contemporary forms of invisibilisation that continue to shape the status of regions deemed marginal within the global order.