On Thursday 14th March 2013 the Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies held the first in a series of occasional seminars named in honour of the late Professor T.H. ‘Harry’ Rigby. A graduate of the Universities of Melbourne and London, Rigby worked at the ANU from 1958 until his retirement in 1996. By the 1970s he had won a reputation as a leading authority on the Soviet Union, and he was the main force driving the ANU’s emergence as a centre of Soviet and Russian studies of global standing. He was among the very few who, in the early 1980s, foresaw fundamental change looming in the Soviet Union, and he remains Australia’s foremost scholar of Russia.

The seminar was opened by Harry Rigby’s son, Professor Richard Rigby, Executive Director of the ANU China Institute. The occasion brought together academic experts and government officials to discuss contemporary trends in Russia. The ANUCES invited Dr Bobo Lo, one of the foremost authorities on Russia’s foreign relations, to Australia to give the first paper at the inaugural seminar. The other contributions were all from former students of Harry Rigby: Associate Professor Stephen Fortescue, University of New South Wales; Dr John Besemeres, Adjunct Fellow at the ANUCES; and Kyle Wilson, Visiting Fellow of the ANUCES. This brief provides a summary of the four presentations.