Location: Robinson Lower Library

Speaker Bio: Prof. Gorlizki's research "centres on Russia and the Soviet Union, it touches on themes that have a broader application. These include: the nature of dictatorship, the emergence of legal orders, the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats, and the role of interpersonal trust in political systems." Over the last three years he has been involved in two major research projects:

• Networks and Hierarchies in the Soviet Provinces
  The chief purpose of this project, which is led by me and supported by a £139,000 grant from the ESRC, is to chart the evolution of political networks and informal relations at the regional level over three distinct phases of Soviet rule. The project, which has a co-director, four regional researchers and several archival assistants, is described in greater detail on the project website.
• Taking Dictatorship Seriously: Justice and the Constitution in Soviet Russia
  This project examines the emergence of the Soviet criminal justice system in the aftermath of World War II, taking the story through to the end of the Khrushchev era. Based on archival sources and interviews, it traces the origins of de-Stalinization to a new brand of legal-bureaucratic rules which first came to prominence in the late Stalin era.