2011 will mark the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 25 December 1991, in the midst of intrigues and political struggles Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Two years earlier, former Eastern European socialist states had already begun the transition to 'democracy' and 'market economy.' The year 2009 witnessed splendid and highly orchestrated twentieth anniversary celebrations of the end of state socialism in Eastern Europe. These predominantly Eurocentric celebrations tended to reduce the complexity of the change of regimes in Europe and subsequent developments in Central Asia and Russia to a near-teleological 'return to the West.'. Such dissociation, at once deliberate and unconscious, falls short of acknowledging the interdependencies and complexities of the societies and cultures of Eurasia. This conference seeks to reverse the artificial separation of the European theatre from the later developments in the Soviet Union, and Central Asia in particular.