Prof. Dr. Katja Makhotina is a distinguished historian specializing in Eastern European history at the University of Bonn's Department of East European History. With academic roots in St. Petersburg, Karlsruhe, Regensburg, and Munich, she has established herself as a leading scholar in memory studies, Soviet history, and cultural history of Russia and Eastern Europe. Her educational background includes a B.A. from TU Karlsruhe and Universität Regensburg (2006), an M.A. from LMU München's Elite Program in Eastern European Studies (2008), and a Ph.D. with summa cum laude from LMU München (2015) for her dissertation on WWII memory in Soviet and post-Soviet Lithuania. She completed her Habilitation in 2023 with the thesis 'Correction of the Soul: Monasteries as Multifunctional Spaces of Detention in 18th-Century Russia'. Makhotina's research explores the intersections of memory cultures, political history, and legal-religious systems in Eastern Europe. Her current project 'Laboratories of Conscience' investigates courts of conscience in the Russian Empire as transconfessional phenomena. Her work reveals how conscience discourse shaped punishment systems and social control in imperial Russia. She has received numerous prestigious awards including the Bavarian Book Prize (2022) for 'Offene Wunden Osteuropas' (co-authored with Franziska Davies), the Peregrinus-Stiftung Prize (2017), and fellowships from Yad Vashem, DHI Moscow, and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung stipend (2005-2008) Robert-Bosch-Stiftung/Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg stipend (2005-2006) Yad Vashem Fellowship (2013) LMU Dissertation Prize (2015) Bavarian Book Prize (2022) Makhotina actively contributes to public discourse through media appearances and serves on advisory boards for memorial sites including the Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas and Stiftung Hamburger Gedenkstätten. Her scholarly leadership extends to the international research network 'Enfermements modernes' studying early modern confinement practices.






