Prague, Chech Republic
22-23 Ocober 2025
Deadline for abstracts – 31 August 2025
How did forced collectivization reshape rural Europe in the shadow of the Iron Curtain? What did it mean for landowners, laborers, and entire communities when traditional farming was replaced by political control?
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the National Museum of Agriculture (Prague) invite scholars to submit abstracts for the international academic conference in the National Museum of Agriculture, Prague.
This conference aims to examine the political, economic, and social dimensions of agricultural collectivization in the countries subjected to Soviet influence after WWII. It seeks to explore how this process reshaped rural life, property structures, and community identities—and how its legacy continues to echo today.
Suggested Topics include:
Changes in Land Ownership – Confiscation, reforms, and resettlement.
Distortion of Cooperative Principles – State and collective farms, machine-tractor stations, compulsory deliveries.
Forms of Resistance – Repression, trials, and the mechanisms of control.
Eyewitness Accounts – The destruction of independent farming, role of women and youth.
The Legacy of Collectivization – Restitution, revival of private farming, memory.
Selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed monograph.
Accommodation will be covered for accepted speakers.
Submit your abstract via this form: https://forms.gle/Z7BvFs8eRK7fSfmJ6
Deadline: 31 August 2025
Languages: English, Czech, Slovak
