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Dear all, Please find below information about the first event of the newly-formed BASEES Study Group on 'Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe'. For further information about the Study Group, please see our web site: http://www.basees.org.uk/sgrsree.shtml The event will be a seminar at The University of Leicester, at which all are welcome: Dr Stella Rock: ‘Living chronicles of our Fatherland’: The revival of the krestnyi khod (procession of the cross) in post-Soviet Russia. Friday 4 December 2009, 3.00-4.30pm Attenborough Seminar Block Second Floor LR SB2.07, The University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH. This paper will explore the interplay of history, piety and politics at work in the creation and recreation of pilgrimage traditions in post-Soviet Russia. Focusing on the Velikoretskii and Ekaterinburg krestnye khody, the paper will address the astonishing flourishing of the procession of the cross as a form of pilgrimage. The former is a revived tradition which is promoted by the Church as being over 600 years old, the latter a post-Soviet construction which commemorates the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Pilgrims’ perceptions will be compared and contrasted with clerical representations of these pilgrimages, examining the role of historical memory in the creation of post-Soviet sacred space and ritual. Dr Stella Rock is currently researching the post-Soviet revival of pilgrimage in Russia with the support of a British Academy Small Research Grant and a scholarship from the Keston Institute. She is the author of numerous publications, including the book Popular Religion in Russia: "Double Belief" and the Making of an Academic Myth (Routledge, 2007) as well as articles in History Today and Russian Life. The university campus is about 15 minutes walk from Leicester Rail Station. Maps showing how to get to the campus by rail, coach and car can be found here, along with a campus map showing the Attenborough Building: http://www2.le.ac.uk/maps If you can forward this on to anyone who might be interested we would be very grateful. Best wishes, Zoe Knox and Miriam Dobson