Abstract
AbstractIn our article we examine changes experienced by media and memory systems in Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis. Using as an example a popular Russian blogging platform, LiveJournal, we scrutinize how the digital practices related to commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany are influenced by the growing instrumentalization of Second World War memory for media propaganda and manipulation. Using topic modeling to analyze a large set of data on Russian users’ interactions with the platform, we examine how hegemonic and alternative interpretations of the Second World War interact on LiveJournal and how their interactions are influenced by the growing antagonism between Russia and the West. Our findings suggest that LiveJournal constitutes a fractured memory system, which is characterized by uneven representation of Second World War experiences and the growing influence of pro-government actors promoting hegemonic war narratives. However, our observations also show that instrumentalization of the past in the context of the Ukraine crisis does not necessarily interfere with digital practices of Second World War commemoration with the latter remaining unaffected by the events in Ukraine.
Highlights
The Ukraine crisis, which started in 2013 with anti-government protests in Kyiv, followed by the ousting of pro-Russian President Yanukovych and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, has signified a profound change in the Russian media landscape
In our study we examined changes experienced by digital media and cultural memory ecosystems in Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis
Several studies suggest that after 2014, both ecosystems were increasingly used by the Russian authorities to mobilize public support for Kremlin’s foreign politics, especially Russia’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. These changes are visible in the context of the Victory Day, a central element of Second World War remembrance in the post-socialist space, which on the official level increasingly turns into an element of Kremlin’s defiance campaign against the West (Edele 2017), whereas references toward it on digital media serve as a major rhetorical device for framing the Ukraine crisis as a matter of existentialsecurity for Russia (Gaufman 2015; Makhortykh 2018)
Summary
The Ukraine crisis, which started in 2013 with anti-government protests in Kyiv, followed by the ousting of pro-Russian President Yanukovych and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, has signified a profound change in the Russian media landscape. Together with the unprecedented level of state-sponsored cynicism toward the democratic role of mass media (Roudakova 2017), these transformations have led to increased instrumentalization and militarization of traditional and online media in Russia. Under these circumstances, the line between predominantly state-controlled mainstream media outlets and “more independent, international, and oppositional” (Etling et al 2010) online platforms in the post-2014 period became a blurry one. Both analogue and digital media turned to be susceptible to propaganda and manipulation by pro- and anti-Kremlin actors and, instead of providing more nuanced views on domestic and international affairs, online outlets became fertile grounds for producing fake news and nurturing polarized views (Makhortykh and Lyebyedyev 2015; Gruzd and Tsyganova 2015; Zhdanova and Orlova 2017).
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