A public lecture by Stanford University professor Amir Weiner

On March 14, 2024, our Museum welcomed Stanford University professor Amir Weiner, who gave a public lecture on the history of Soviet state security agencies.

Professor Weiner presented a new method for researching the Soviet state security apparatus, based on the analysis of interviews and memoirs of former high-ranking members of the KGB, combined with the study of KGB documents available to researchers. His approach allows for a better understanding of KBG officers’ motivations and the professional, political and ethical dilemmas they faced.

The lecture looked in depth into the evolution of the KGB’s methods of repression, and sought to explain why the “sword and shield” of the Communist Party was unable to prevent the collapse of the USSR. In closing, Professor Weiner focused on the influence of Soviet security agency personnel in current-day Russian politics. 
 
Amir Weiner is the director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and a professor of history at Stanford University. He is the author of Making Sense of War, Landscaping the Human Garden, and numerous articles and edited volumes on the impact of World War Il on the Soviet polity, the social history of WWII and Soviet frontier politics. His forthcoming book, At Home with the KGB: A New History of the Soviet Security Service, will be published by Yale University Press in 2024.