Tomila Lankina

How resilient are liberal ideas and values against authoritarian repression? Tomila Lankina, Professor at the London School of Economics, will explore this question as an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Excellence Cluster SCRIPTS at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on specific population groups in Russia and Ukraine during the communist era.

In the Tsarist Empire, the urban bourgeoisie was often particularly receptive to liberal values and supported the liberalization of Russia. While communism is generally thought to have fundamentally reshaped society, new research suggests that historical communities remained surprisingly stable. Tomila Lankina seeks to determine whether these communities retained their liberal values despite repression and whether this had a lasting impact on their protest behavior.

Exile communities in Berlin will serve as a substitute for on-site field research and contribute to the debate on the persistence of liberal values.