M. N. Bahmatova The book presentations of Italian scholars at the History Department of Moscow State University – Lomonosov

Abstract: The article summarizes the book presentations of two Italian authors, Gian Paolo Caselli (Caselli G. P. La Russia nuova. Economia e storia da Gorbač¸v a Putin. Milano-Udine, 2013) and Giorgio Scotoni (Scotoni G. Il Nemico Fidato. La guerra di sterminio in URSS e l’occupazione alpina sull’Alto Don. Trento, 2013), which took place on the 19th of February 2014 at the History Department of Moscow State University – Lomonosov. The Italian scholars in their comprehensive presentations described the concepts, main premises and conclusions of their studies. The monograph of G. Scotoni fills the gap in the history of the Italian Alpenkorp’s military operations participation in the USSR in 1941–1944. The author raises the question of the Italians degree of involvement in Germany’s extermination war on Soviet territories, proving that the German and the Italian forces from the beginning differed in their motivations: the Italians were moved by the Catholic ideas of proselytism and generally did not tarnish themselves with atrocities against the civil population. The book by G. P. Caselli examines the socio-economical processes in post-Soviet Russia, from which he derived a number of predictions as to the possible options of our country’s movement on the paths of modernization and progress, and on the geopolitical position of Russia in general. The presentation was conducted in Russian and Italian languages and aroused great interest in all present.

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