Join us for a conversation with the authors of The Outbreak: An Unknown History of HIV in the USSR (Вспышка. Неизвестная история ВИЧ в СССР), a gripping account of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late Soviet Union.

When HIV was discovered in 1983, Soviet propaganda dismissed it as a “virus of drug addicts and homosexuals,” blaming American intelligence while ignoring the real threat. With no sex education, limited contraception, and strict censorship, the crisis unfolded in silence. This book paints a vivid picture of late Soviet society through the stories of doctors, activists, scientists, journalists, and ordinary people who faced the epidemic head-on.

In conversation with Andrei Zavadski, Irina Roldugina and Katerina Suverina will explore the social, political, and cultural impact of HIV/AIDS in the USSR and how this history offers a fresh perspective on perestroika. 

Irina Roldugina is a historian and author of numerous publications on Russian history. Born in Moscow, she received her PhD in Oxford and worked at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. She is a research fellow at the University of Bristol, UK. Her research interests include social history and the history of sexuality, with a particular focus on early modern and Soviet Russia.

Katerina Suverina is a cultural studies scholar and historian. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz, Germany, and a co-founder of The February Journal. Her research interests include memory studies, historical trauma, and medical humanities with a special focus on the cultural history of HIV/AIDS in the late USSR and contemporary Russia.

Andrei Zavadski is an interdisciplinary scholar, author, and editor living between Berlin, Dortmund, and Paris. He is a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Art and Material Culture, TU Dortmund University, an associate member of the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and a co-founding editor of The February Journal. He works at the intersections of memory studies, museum studies, public history, and media studies, with a focus on Eastern Europe. 

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