Following on from the project launch workshop in February 2019, a detailed fieldwork-planning workshop took place on 29th October, 2019. The workshop was attended by all the members of the research team based in Helsinki, the people who will be leading the first phase of field-work in the Russian Federation and new recruits to the project. Professor Pallot opened the workshop by a talk in which she revisited the project’s aims and explained developments since the project launch workshop. Newcomers to the project introduced themselves and discussed the contribution they would be making to the different stages of the project. The main business of the workshop followed. This consisted of finalising the logistics and timetabling associated with the first round of interviews, which with the cooperation of the Urals Federal University will take place in Sverdlovsk oblast. Among the topics on the agenda were the methodology, recruitment of research participants, data management in the field, ethical guidelines to be followed.
Gulag Echoes in the “multicultural prison”: historical and geographical influences on the identity and politics of ethnic minority prisoners in the communist successor states of Russia and Europe