EUROPE/RUSSIA – Moscow hosts a conference on relations between the Holy See and Italy between the 19th and 21st centuries

Moscow – On December 16, the conference entitled “Italy, Vatican, Catholicism: 19th-21st Centuries” was held in Moscow at the Institute of Scientific Information of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The event, the seventh meeting of the Association of Italianists of Russia, featured 14 presentations, eleven by Russian scholars and three by Italian scholars. “It is not possible to study Italy, its history, its language, and its culture without knowing the history of the Papal State, the Vatican, the relations between Italy and the Holy See, as well as contemporary Catholicism,” Valerij P. Ljubin, senior researcher at INION, internationally renowned historian, and president of the Association, told Fides. The contributions on ongoing research were attended by approximately fifty people, both in person and online. Among the moderators was Leonid B. Popov, a diplomat, economist, and translator for Mikhail Gorbachev. The Association of Italianists in Russia was founded in 2014, following a conference commemorating the centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Soviet Union. At the conclusion of the conference, participants expressed their shared desire to meet regularly to share their research and cultivate relationships aimed at fostering dialogue between the two peoples, particularly in the current historical context. In this context, the INION offered its facilities to host future meetings. Currently, around 150 scholars and amateurs receive updates on scheduled events. In the words of President Ljubin, it remains essential to encourage ongoing exchange among scholars: “Science must be international; otherwise, it is not science. We must continue to forge constructive relationships among ourselves, especially today.” Of particular relevance were the research papers presented on issues and events that have shaped contemporary Italian history and philosophy: Andrej A. Mitrofanov’s study of Jansenism as a factor in the revolts in Piedmont and the Republic of Genoa; Ekaterina A. Kimlenko’s analysis of the 1878 conclave; Valerij Ljubin’s analysis of the complex relations between Italy and the Holy See based on Russian diplomatic sources; the 1909 Italian parliamentary elections, seen through the writings of Russian publicist P. Ryss, as reconstructed by Irina E. Eman; Marina N. Bachmatova’s study of the various phases of modernism; M. Pluviano’s research on the Soldiers’ Houses during the First World War; and Evgenija S. Tokareva’s work on the collaboration between Vatican and Italian diplomacy in defense of Catholics in the USSR. letters sent from the USSR by Catholic priests, as outlined by Aleksei L. Beglov; Maria Chiara Dommarco’s analysis of the Vatican Secretariat of State’s reaction to a 1944 article by Don Luigi Sturzo; Aleksandr A. Bogdaškin’s presentation on recent developments in American historiography regarding the Vatican’s role in the escape of Nazi criminals from Europe; Ekaterina S. Ždanova’s study of the Vatican’s interest in postwar Italian foreign policy; Veronika E. Jaz’kova’s research on the phenomenon of elitism; and the analyses of the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, presented respectively by Roberta Alonzi and Boris A. Filippov, the regular meetings between Russian and Italian scholars provide a valuable opportunity for exchange and debate on the scholarly research presented on each occasion. The six previous events addressed economic, philosophical, and historical topics related to relations between Italy and the USSR and between Italy and Russia, and presented two volumes of particular interest: one dedicated to the travels of Italian writers and journalists to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, and another focusing on Russian and Italian historiography one hundred years after the beginning of the Fascist period.

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