Wittenberg is excited to host a special colloquium and screening of the documentary film “Mothers of the Revolution” from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, in the Bayley Auditorium of the Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center. Open to the Wittenberg community, the screening is being made possible courtesy of NBCUniversal.
“Mothers of the Revolution” tells the story of one of the most significant peace movements in the second half of the 20th Century, chronicling how a small group of women had a hand in ending the Cold War. The film screening will begin at 4 p.m. in front of an in-person audience only, followed by a Q & A with Professor Emerita of Geography Olga Medvedkov, who was one of the key leaders of this movement in the Soviet Union and is featured prominently in the film. The Q & A portion will be presented virtually to a larger audience of alumni and friends. Immediately following, there will be a brief cookie-and-punch reception for those on campus.”
Medvedkov, who earned her B.A. and M.A. from Moscow State University in Russia, and her Ph.D. from the Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Geography, is the winner Wittenberg’s 2010 Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest recognition bestowed on a Wittenberg faculty member. She is also the recipient of two prestigious senior Fulbright Scholarships, spending a semester teaching and conducting research in Moscow during the 2002-03 academic year, and then doing the same in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2009-10. She also earned a grant from the National Council for Soviet & East European Research.
Additionally, Medvedkov has written several dozen articles in professional journals, contributed chapters to numerous books, and published two books on Soviet urbanization and changes in urban and social landscape across post-Soviet space. Together with Russian and Central Eurasian Studies colleague Gerry Hudson, professor emeritus of political science, Medvedkov previously accompanied students on five research trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, the last one being in 2008 (The photo above is from one of their trips). Her husband, Yuri Medvedkov, is a professor emeritus of geography at The Ohio State University, and they have two children, Masha and Michael.
Author of numerous books on the Soviet Union and its military policies, Hudson is the former director of Russian and Central Eurasian Studies at Wittenberg. A native of Washington, D.C., he received the 2002 Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Teaching. His many other awards include a Senior Fulbright Fellowship, which he took in Russia in 1995-96, a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation National Needs Fellowship. Throughout his career at Wittenberg, he also spent time as an advisor to the Department of Defense and as a consultant to the National Security Council. Hudson earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Colorado and his doctorate from Indiana University. He and wife, Anne, have two grown sons, David and Theodore.
“Mothers of the Revolution” centers on the untold story of the Greenham Common women of which Medvedkov was associated. The group of 36 women set off on a 120-mile march in 1981 from Cardiff, Wales, to Berkshire in southeast England to protest against the planned arrival of American nuclear missiles on UK soil.
“In doing so they started something extraordinary, in time galvanizing over 70,000 women into action to protect their children and future generations,” said Rob Baker, professor of political science. “This is the untold story of those Greenham Common women. A tale of how a small number of them made connections with their counterparts in the peace movement behind the Iron Curtain, travelling to the Soviet Union to advance peace and, eventually, contributing toward the end of the Cold War.”
Wittenberg’s unique event is co-sponsored by the following offices, departments and programs: the President’s Office, Alumni Engagement, Communication and Digital Media, Political Science, Physics, World Languages and Cultures, Women’s Studies, Sociology, History, International Studies, and Russian and Central Eurasian Studies. To attend the special Q & A session, click here. To view the film’s trailer, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWirc-uWGgQ.
