Russia & Europe

Professor Jiří Hanuš

The sixth annual Masaryk Days will occur at Masaryk University on 5 and 6 March. This time, the topic of "Russia and Europe" will be devoted to.

Tomáš G. Masaryk was interested in Russia all his life: its history, culture and politics. He visited the country frequently, had many friends there, and had his favorite Russian authors, whom he read repeatedly and internally debated with. He thought about what would happen to Russia during the war and especially after the war, after the Bolshevik Revolution, which he strongly criticised. He wrote a work (Russia and Europe), still alive today, which analyzes the ideological tendencies of the Russian intelligentsia and the spiritual trends of 19th century Russia.

Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that this year's Masaryk Days focuses on an issue that so troubled even the spiritual father of Masaryk University. Today, Russia is in a situation that once again demands attention from all sides. That is why we will reflect with the Polish columnist and diplomat Piotr Skwieciński on the "end of the Russian world", with historian Petr Hlaváček on the current conflict in Ukraine, and with the pair Michal Stehlík - Martin Groman on the relevance of Masaryk's legacy in relation to Russia. The winner of this year's Masaryk Days, Daniel Kroupa, a university philosophy teacher, was also asked to make a short contribution to this topic.

The organizers' intention is not only to maintain a constant interest in updating the topics related to the activities of the spiritual father of Masaryk University through meetings, talks, conference papers, and academic discussions. However, the two-day event, in which all parts of the MU Cultural Centre participate, is intended to become an opportunity to address not only the academic public but all those interested in the problems of the troubled world in which we live.

Jiří Hanuš
Vice-Rector for Academic and Cultural Affairs