Georgios Giannakopoulos and Dina Gusejnova in conversation with Alexander Etkind, Professor of History at the European University Institute at Florence, and Maria Mälksoo, Senior Lecturer in International Security at the Brussels School of International Studies, University of Kent. Taking the protests in Belarus which began in August 2020 as a cue, this episode reexamines some of the pivotal scholarship in Eastern European history and international relations through conversations about ways in which the past comes alive in present crises. The episode aims to contextualise the past of Belarus and the region of Kresy in the light of an open future, centring around issues of the cultural and economic histories of borderlands, memory and security, forgotten and obliterated groups. We also discuss how interdisciplinary groups using new media could foster new insights into the history and memory of this region.