This paper was part of a roundtable discussion at the international symposium, “Russian Literature and Philosophy: Religion, Nationalism and Dissidence,” which took place at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil, November 2022. The roundtable included Paul Contino, Gary Saul Morson, and the author of this paper, Caryl Emerson. It is an honor
Between November 22–24, 2022 scholars of Russian literature, philosophy, and religion descended on the midsized Brazilian town of Juiz de Fora from all over South America, North America, and Europe. The conference was held at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora and co-sponsored by the Northwestern University Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. Juiz de Fora, nestled amid grassy hills situated three and a half hours north of Rio de Janeiro’s forested mountains, did much to charm its visitors, who convened to discuss the weighty matters of Russian culture in the context of the authoritarianism and violence of our times.