News
The Sixth Leonidas Donskis Conference: Will Russia Survive 2024?
On September 21, 2023, at Vaidilos Theatre (Vilnius) the sixth Leonidas Donskis Conference will be held, organized by The Andrei Sakharov Research Centre at VDU. The conference will bring together a select group of experts to discuss Russia topic based on learned lessons from the past, putting them in a contemporary context and suggesting what steps should be taken to facilitate the above-mentioned processes. The conference will be followed by a concert in memory of Leonidas Donskis. More information and registration here.
Sister Voidogaitė was chosen as the person of tolerance, the Donskis Prize was awarded to Vanagas
Viktorija Voidogaitė, an educator and nun, was elected the Tolerance Man of the Year 2021 by the decision of the board of the Sugihara Foundation “Diplomats for Life”. The annual Leonidas Donskis Prize is awarded to writer, journalist and translator Rimantas Vanagas.
At the conference in memory of Donskis – about the impact of the pandemic on mental health
In honor of Leonidas Donskis, a professor at Vytautas Magnus University (Vytautas Magnus University), one of the most outstanding European thinkers, the third conference dedicated to the memory of the philosopher “Mind the Gap. Emotional Well-being and Social Solidarity during COVID-19“. Information and registration: https://www.sakharovcenter-vdu.eu/events/third-leonidas-donskis-memorial-conference/
Publications
The New Fascist International
In his book of correspondence with the noted French writer Michel Houellebecq, Public Enemies, the French journalist, activist and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy wrote on present Russia: “Not only does this Russia inspire no desire in me, it fills me with horror. I’d go so far as to say that it frightens me because I see in it a possible destiny for the late-capitalist societies. Once upon a time, during your postwar ‘glory days,’ the middle class was terrorized by being told that Brezhnev’s communism was not an archaism restricted to distant societies but rather a picture of our own future. We were wrong: it was not communism but postcommunism, Putinism, that may be the testing ground for our future.” (Continue...)
The springtime of our discontent
The title of this writing is a paraphrase of the title of a famous novel. As we know, The Winter of Our Discontent is the title of John Steinbeck’s last novel, published in 1961. The title is a reference to the first two lines of William Shakespeare’s Richard III: “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”(Tęsti...)
Neither Friend nor Foe Who Saved Europe
Immediately after Russia stepped in Syria, we understood that it is time to sum up the convoluted and long story about Ukraine and the EU – a story of pride and prejudice which has a chance to become a story of a new vision regained after self-inflicted blindness. (Continue...)
