The
Priamukhino Readings, an annual conference held in the birth place of Russsian
anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin, is a fine example of horizontal networking. The
village of Priamukhino
(Tver’ region) has hosted the Readings
since the early 2000s.
Priamukhino welcomes!
The conference is unique in that it exists apart from
institutions like state universities and is held only by efforts of a small
organizing committee. The latter manages to involve a wide range of scholars as
participants and publish papers and speeches in annual collection of studies.
A core group of the organizing committee
No doubt
that the prospect of giving a speech or having a paper published is enough for
a true scholar to get off the ground and take part in the conference but is it
worth going so far? Priamukhino is 5-6 hours away from Moscow without direct transport connections. There
are no comfortable hotels or even hostels there. The guests usually stay in a
local boarding school or in izbas belonged to the organizers. However all these
drawbacks can be recognized as benefits. Spending the weekend in Priamukhino is
a good opportunity to face Russian rural life with its nature, sense of
seclusion, remoteness from big cities and pastoral activities like sleeping in
hay. But for those who usually come there the delights of country life are of minor
importance than the village’s background.
