Professor Stéphane Courtois

RNH holds a conference on “Europe of the Victims: Remembering Communism” Saturday 22 September between 13 and 18 at the University of Iceland, the Natural Science House Askja, N–132. The keynote speaker is Professor Stéphane Courtois, editor and one of the authors of the Black Book of Communism which was published by the University of Iceland Press 2009, in a translation by Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson. Other speakers from abroad are Norwegian Professor Oystein Sorensen who will speak on the link between Marxism as a theory and totalitarianism in practice, Australian author Anna Funder, whose Stasiland has been translated into Icelandic, who will speak about daily life under communism, and Dr. Roman Joch, adviser to the Czech Prime Minister, who will speak about the revision of history in the post-communist Central and East European countries.

Two Icelandic scholars will also comment, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, author of a recent book, Icelandic Communists 1918–1998, and Professor Thor Whitehead, author of another recent book, Soviet-Iceland. The Country of Our Dreams. Admission is free. More information on the programme participants is available here.

The programme is as follows:

13.00–13.05 Welcome address, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson

First session. Moderator Egill Helgason

• 13.05–13.45 Stéphane Courtois
• 13.45–14.15 Discussion

Second Session. Moderator Jakob F. Asgeirsson

• 14.15–14.45 Roman Joch
• 14.45–15.15 Anna Funder
• 15.15–15.30 Discussion
• 15.30–15.45 Coffee Break

Third Session. Moderator Ragnhildur Kolka

• 15.45–16.15 Oystein Sorensen
• 16.15–16.45 Hannes H. Gissurarson
• 16.45–17.00 Discussion
• 17.00–17.10 Concluding Remarks: Thor Whitehead
• 17.10-18.00 Reception on the premises

One day before the conference, on Friday, 21 September, Professor Oystein Sorensen will give a lecture at the University of Iceland, room HT-102 in the University Centre, 12–13, on “The Totalitarian Mindset of Anders Breivik”. The meeting is co-sponsored by Vardberg. Bjorn Bjarnason, former Minister of Justice, will chair it. Two days after the conference, on Monday 24 September, Ms. Anna Funder will give a lecture at the University of Iceland, Room O-101, 12–13 on “The Totalitarian Experience”. The meeting is held by the Vigdis Finnbogadottir Institute of foreign languages at the University of Iceland. Martin Regal, Professor of English at the University of Iceland, will chair it. The conference and Funder’s and Sorensen’s lectures form a part of the project “Europe of the Victims: Remembering Communism”, jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.

The distinguished Canadian economist Dr. Michael Walker, former director of the Fraser Institute, will give a talk Monday 17 September 2012 on economic freedom in Iceland and elsewhere, at a breakfast meeting of the RSE in Grand Hotel, 8.30 to 10.30.

The occasion is the publication of the index of economic freedom for 2010 which the Fraser Institute, with the help of three Nobel Laureates in economics, has been compiling annually for many years. In particular, the topic is how Iceland now fares in terms of economic freedom. According to the 2009 figures, Iceland was one of the countries where economic freedom had decreased the most in recent years, with Venezuela and Argentina.

After Walker’s talk, Gisli Hauksson, asset manager at Gamma and chairman of the RNH board, will add a few remarks about what Iceland can do to increase economic freedom. It is expected that the meeting will be over at about 10. It is open and admission is free. While the meeting was held by RSE, it was supported and promoted by RNH, forming a part of the series of lectures jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

The next event in the lecture series jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe of the Victims”, will be a lecture given by Norwegian historian Dr. Oystein Sorensen on “Anders Breivik’s Totalitarian Mindset”. There Sorensen will analyse the political ideas of the notorious Norwegian mass killer. The lecture will take place in Haskolatorg (University Centre) Room HT-102, Friday 21 September at noon, from 12 to 13. It is co-sponsored by the Icelandic Atlantic Alliance, Vardberg, and its chairman, former Justice Minister Bjorn Bjarnason, will chair the meeting.

Oystein Sorensen, born 1954 in Norway, received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Oslo where he is now Professor of History. He has published biographies of Fridtjof Nansen and Bjornstjerne Bjornson and written on various historical subjects, such as the development of Norwegian national consciousness in the 19th Century. In 2010, he published the book Drommen om de fullkomne samfunn (Dreaming about Perfect Societies), criticizing the totalitarian tendencies in fascism, nazism, communism and islamism. There, he traces Stalinism to its origins in Marxism. In 2011, Sorensen co-edited Ideologi og terror (Ideology and Terror), a collection of papers by various authors. His most recent publication is an analysis of the totalitarian mindset of Anders B. Breivik.

The next event in the project jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe of the Victims: Remembering Communism”, will be a lecture given by Dr. Niels Erik Rosenfeldt, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Copenhagen, on an important aspect of European history, the Secret Operations of Comintern, a topic much-discussed in Iceland after the publication of Thor Whitehead’s book in 2010, Soviet Iceland. The Country of Our Dreams. The lecture will be held in lecture room 201 in Oddi, the Social Science House of the University of Iceland, Monday 10 September, between 12–13 o’clock. It is co-sponsored by The Institute for Historical Research at the University of Iceland and the Atlantic Association of Iceland (Vardberg). Former Justice Minister Bjorn Bjarnason will chair the meeting.

Born in 1941, Niels Erik Rosenfeldt completed a cand. mag. (MA) in Russian and History and a dr. phil. (PhD) in History, both from the University of Copenhagen. He was Professor of History at the University of Copenhagen until 2011. Studying Soviet archives for decades, his two-volumes book, The ‘Special’ World: Stalin’s Power Apparatus and the Soviet System’s Secret Structures of Communication, was published in 2009. Rosenfeldt was awarded the coveted H. O. Lange Prize by the Danish Royal Library for his book on Lenin.