In this talk, Roman Utkin will highlight the key findings of his book, Charlottengrad: Russian Culture in Weimar Berlin (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). He will provide insight into the exile community in Berlin, which, following the collapse of the tsarist government, was one of the earliest to face and collectively process the peculiarly modern problem of statelessness. Utkin’s talk will explore how community members balanced their sense of Russianness with their position in a modern Western city charged with artistic, philosophical, and sexual freedom.   

As many as half a million Russians lived in Germany in the 1920s, most of them in Berlin, clustered in and around the Charlottenburg neighborhood to such a degree that it became known as “Charlottengrad.” Traditionally, the Russian émigré community has been understood as one of exiles aligned with Imperial Russia and hostile to the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet government that followed. However, Charlottengrad embodied a full range of personal and political positions vis-à-vis the Soviet project, from enthusiastic loyalty to questioning ambivalence and pessimistic alienation.

Sponsored by the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.