The city of St. Petersburg has long loomed large in the Russian cultural imagination—not simply as place and space, but as a signifier of alternative visions, of unrealized hopes and dreams (and nightmares). So it is perhaps unsurprising that the city has been the setting for a recent spate of novels and TV shows that reimagine the historical trajectory of Russia and the Soviet Union through the genre of alternate history. This talk focuses on two recent alt-history novels set in Soviet Leningrad which ask readers to imagine a Nazi victory in the Second World War. In the grip of fascist regimes, the fictional societies in these works pose unsettling questions about possible pasts and potential futures—and suggest some provocative parallels with the present.

This talk is a continuation of the Global Languages, Cultures and Literatures on the Move series begun last year, and is sponsored by Language, Literatures and Cultures faculty.

Reed Johnson is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies