Prof. Oliver Jens Schmitt. Moscow’s Western Rivals

Bio: Prof. Oliver Jens Schmitt was born in Basel in 1973. Studied Byzantine Studies, Greek Philology and Eastern European History in Basel, Vienna, Berlin and Munich. Since 2005, Professor of Southeast European History at the University of Vienna. Since 2011, full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 2017-2022 Member of the Academy's Presidium.

Most important book publications in recent years:

· Moskaus westliche Rivalen. Eine europäische Geschichte vom Nordkap bis zum Schwarzen Meer. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2025

· Machtkirche zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie. Eine Geschichte der rumänischen orthodoxen Kirche 1918-2023. Berlin: Oldenbourg deGruyter 2023

· A Concise History of Albania (mit Bernd J. Fischer). Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2022

· (als Herausgeber) Handbuch zur Geschichtze Südosteuropas Bd. 2. Berlin: deGruyter 2021

· Der Balkan im 20. Jahrhundert. Eine postimperiale Geschichte. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2019

Abstract: The Russian attack on Ukraine has shaken Western historical research on Eastern Europe – has it contributed to spreading a Moscow-centric narrative and thus rendering numerous European societies invisible? While this debate has so far been conducted primarily on a theoretical level, the lecture aims to present a concrete model for the historiographical implementation of a new history of Eastern Europe. It will discuss an entangled history of all the western neighbours of the Muscovite state, following the thesis that all of them, albeit in different forms, differed and continue to differ from the Moscow political system in terms of their political culture.

The lecture will take place at 17:00 on 1 December 2025 in Auditorium 211 at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University. Dr Darius Staliūnas (Lithuanian Institute of History) will moderate the lecture.