Celine Marange

Ms. Marang s research focuses on a comparative analysis of Soviet and Vietnamese constructions of the enemy within during post-war periods (1945-1956 for the Soviet Union and 1975-1986 for Vietnam) and explores the outbreak of racism in communist countries. Ms. Marang s is particularly interested in the ethnicization of internal enemy categories, as well as in the diffusion of Soviet ideology and social control system in Vietnam. She shows that the post-war period in both countries presents striking similarities both in the categorization and the treatment of internal enemies, and in the way they were represented in propaganda. She contends that these analogies are mainly due to the nature of the socialist project as well as to the Soviet influence in Vietnam. By working chiefly on sources in Vietnamese and in Russian, Ms. Marang s thesis insists on the role of law and propaganda in defining the enemy. It also sheds new light on the political history of both countries (ethnic repression and crackdowns on delinquency) and on the cultural history of communism, while helping to elucidate the nature of the Soviet-Vietnamese cooperation and the specificities of Vietnamese communism after 1975.