"Alive Despite All the Odds": Сollective Memory of Cossacks in Social Networks

Abstract

The subject of this research is mnemonic practices, i.e. ways of actualizing the past in the collective memory of modern (2010–2020) Cossacks. I chose Cossack communities in social networks for the analysis because they are part of the public sphere and differ from print or official media in their almost complete absence of censorship and freedom of discussion, even on topics excluded from the official public discourse. The main instruments of my research are content and discourse analysis in the methodology of E. Laclau and S. Mouffe. I have found that the most problematic topics for the collective memory of the revived Cossacks are the genocide of the Cossacks and collaboration during World War II. Two narratives of Cossack history – heroic and victimized - coexist in the heterogeneous Cossack community. Often, both versions of the Cossack past are instrumentalized by the same actor for the political needs of the current moment.