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The 2019 edition of the program took place at CADAL in Buenos Aires, from Monday to Friday from 17.30 to 19.30. It included the following topics: the construction of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, the collapse of real socialism and the velvet and iron transitions; 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall: a testimony in first person; North Korea: the perfect totalitarianism; a summary of URSS and satellite countries’ history through political satire; political conceptions of modern revolutions; journalism and dissidence in communist dictatorships; Africa during and after the Cold War; democracy and politics in Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar; Romania behind the iron curtain: a less-than-linear path; and Georgia: from failed country to modern state.
Monday, November 4, historian Ricardo Lopez Göttig talked about: Bolshevik Revolution of 1917; Lenin, Trotski, Stalin and the construction of the Soviet Unión; agrarian reform; super-industrialization and militarization of society; Soviet expansion in the post-war period. Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary; economic, social and political problems; how Dissent emerged in Central Europe: Solidarity and Charter 77; the perestroika and glasnost of Mikhail Gorbachev; the events of 1989 and the collapse of the "socialist camp" in Europe; the transitions of socialism; the Velvet and Iron transitions; the Velvet transitions: Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary; the Iron transitions: Russia, Belarus and Central Asia.
Tuesday, November 5 Olaf Jacob, representative in Argentina of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, gave a first-hand account on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Wednesday, November 6 the political scientist Agustín Menéndez presented the origin of North Korea; emergence of the figure of Kim Il-Sung; Korean War (1950-1953); cult of personality; Chollima movement; characteristics of North Korean society and violation of human rights; Rise of Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un; Korean Workers' Party; nuclear tests and North Korea today.
Thursday, November 7 the social scientist Tomas Varnagy provided a brief history of the USSR and satellite countries through the political satire, included Leninist Revolution, Stalin dictatorship, de-Stalinization (Khrushchev), stagnation (Brezhnev), dissolution (Gorbachev) and satellite countries.
Friday, November 8 the historian Sabrina Ajmechet offered a tour of historical experiences of the 19th and 20th centuries that included: Modern revolutions as a radical novelty: the idea that through will it is possible to transform social and political reality; the conceptual world that opens with the French Revolution and is going to shape the democratic politics of modern times; the cases of United States (1776) and French (1789) Revolutions to think about political ideas and practices attached to the idea of revolution; and international cases and national experience to analyze how this imaginary was an important part of the political constructions of our time.
Monday, November 11 the Doctor of Public Communication Fernando Ruiz discussed the following topics: The revolution was televised in Eastern Europe; the Samizdat began building trust, and then it was the TV screen that blew up the dictatorships; and the art of transition was how to get dissenting society into national television.
Tuesday, November 12 the historian Omer Freixa talked about the African continent as a space of rivalry and confrontation in the bipolar conflict; independence processes; socialism and unitarian parties regimes; Another way: African socialism; South African apartheid as a bastion of anti-communism; The tragic decolonization of Portuguese Africa; after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of URSS; Continental neglect and democratization; Proliferation of conflicts: Somalia, genocide in Rwanda and instability in the Great African Lakes; and Africa today matters again.
Wednesday, November 13 the historians and investigators of the Study Group of Asia and Latin America (GESAAL), Cecilia Noce and Fernando Pedrosa talked about democracy and politics in Southeast Asia: political regimes; the region’s liberty; journalism and Human Rights situation. Cecilia Noce referred to Myanmar case.
The third class of Wednesday 13, Fernando Pedrosa talked about Cambodia and Vietnam cases: leadership, political actors and conflicts; transitions towards democracy or authoritarianism?
Thursday, November 14 the journalist Ignacio Hutin, author of "Deconstruction. Chronicles and reflections from post-communist Eastern Europe" referred to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the iron curtain as the beginning of an extensive and endless process for the countries that had to go through it. In some cases, transitions included war. In other, the authoritarianism inherited from the Soviet Union was planted and the Communist Party simply changed its name. There were also cases of turn to the extreme right, separatisms and self-proclaimed independence. Different societies have dealt with their past in different ways.
On Friday, November 15, the last class was given with the participation as exhibitors of two ambassadors in Argentina. First, S.E. Carmen Podgorean, Romanian Ambassador to Argentina, who spoke about Romania behind the Iron Curtain: a less than linear route, including the following topics: Communism: only for Sovietism (1944-1948); Sovietism until... taking out Soviet troops from Romania (1948-1958); National-communism and "emancipation, but not so much" (1958-1971); The Romanian "dissent" against the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968; The Maoist illusion of ideological totalitarianism: authoritarianism and cult of personality (1971-1989); Transition to democracy: there are no pre-conceived recipes; The communist past: between demonization and (few) nostalgia.
Finally, Irakli Kurashvili, Georgian Ambassador in Argentina, spoke about Georgia: From the Failed Country to the Modern State, addressing the following issues: The Soviet legacy and its implications for the process of building the modern country; The trajectory chosen by the Georgian government to handle the challenges given and the implementation of the reforms that shaped the modern European state.
At the end of the seminar, the ambassadors of Romania and Georgia, the representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Mónica Bing, and the General Director of CADAL, Gabriel Salvia, presented the certificates of attendance to the participants.
After the delivery of Certificates of Attendance, a Wine of Honor was offered to the participants.
