Meeting Professor Aadu Must

On May 23-27, 2016, Tomsk received a delegation from the Republic of Estonia which was comprised of representatives of the country’s political and scientific circles. The programme of the visit listed a wide range of events including meetings with Tomsk officials, with the Tomsk Governor Sergey A. Zhvachkin and Rector of Tomsk State University Eduard V. Galazhinskiy. Planned were also visits to scientific and cultural institutions of the city, meetings with Tomsk intellectuals, a wreath-laying ceremony at the Memorial Stone ‘To Estonians who died on Tomsk soil’, and trips to the villages of Beryozovka and Liliengofka of the Pervomaiskiy district where live the descendants of Estonians who had settled in Siberia over a hundred years ago.

To get acquainted with Tomsk research infrastructure, the Estonian delegation visited the TSU Laboratory for Social and Anthropological Research on May 23rd. One of the delegation members, Professor of the University of Tartu Aadu Must gave an open lecture here themed ‘New areas of inquiry in Europe’s historical research. EU programmes for financing joint research projects of EU and ‘Eastern partnership’ countries’ historians’.

Next day, another public lecture tiled ‘Research on the history of the Russian Empire in European countries’ was given by Professor Must at the TSU Research Library. It was attended by TSU Department of History fellows. Different questions were touched upon in the lecture, among them the issue of getting access to historical sources.

Professor Must is not only a researcher – he is also a politician, member of the Council of Estonian Centrist Party (which is of social-liberal orientation and participates in an alliance of kindred parties at the EU level). He noted that the history of Russia and more specifically of Siberia is of intense interest to European researchers and often becomes an object of quite in-depth inquiry. At the same time, there is a difference in how Russian and international science approaches it. The very practice of conducting research is, in fact, different as, for example, even regulations on the use of archive materials differ.

In the meeting, all interested could ask Professor Must a question personally. There was also an exchange of presents between the hosts and the visitors. On their part, the Estonian delegation presented the LSAR team with some books of their own authorship.