Politics of Memory as a Tool of Civic Culture Formation: The Russian Specifics and Regional Aspects

Konstantin V Vodenko,Alexei L Ustimenko,Sergey S Chernykh,Dmitry L Ustimenko

doi:10.7596/taksad.v9i2.2683

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to describe the specifics of the formation of the discourse of politics of memory in Russia and to determine the means of its instrumentalization as applied to the processes of development of civic culture, aimed at unification of people around the common historical heritage. Regarding methodology, the potential of cultural & sociological approach, constructivism, the theory of social and symbolic capital, and inter-disciplinary analysis of monumental policy and its role in consideration of civic culture and creation of significant images of historical past is used. The authors dwell on the key directions in the spheres of studying the politics of memory in Russia as a tool of formation of civic culture in the context of global and regional trends; determine the specifics of politics of memory in Russia and define the state’s role in this process in view of the tendencies of formation of civic nation and unification around the common historical heritage; describe the complexities which might be faced by politics of memory in South of Russia – which are largely predetermined by the ethnocultural differences; consider further perspectives of development of research of politics of memory and civic culture in Russia within the influence of the “Eastern European discourse of memory” and other regional narratives.

Highlights

Modern Russian citizens – especially youth – remain an important object of the national policy that is aimed at the formation of civic culture, which could ensure a high level of solidarity of Russians based on the common memory of the most important events of the Russian history
In the space of the scientific and research discourse, the issue of studying the politics of memory and its role in formation of civic culture of the modern Russian society is very important; the number of scientific works devoted to this problem is small (Methodological issues of studying politics of memory..., 2018) – especially in view of the implemented inter-disciplinary projects, which result is a factual synthesis of knowledge on the creation of historical memory for the important symbols of civic culture
It is possible to state that the scientific discourse “politics of memory” is at the stage of its formation and institutionalization – it is open for attraction of specialists from various spheres of humanitarian knowledge

Summary

Introduction

Modern Russian citizens – especially youth – remain an important object of the national policy that is aimed at the formation of civic culture, which could ensure a high level of solidarity of Russians based on the common memory of the most important events of the Russian history. Historical politics of memory has recently acquired a rather controversial character, caused primarily by the Russia's Soviet heritage and the irreversible process of destruction of the YaltaPotsdam order (Miller, 2016), which used to establish the rules of interpretation and representation of the main events of the 20th century’s history – especially, the ones connected to a complex of causes of World War II, its main stages, and lessons for future generations From this point of view, the issues connected to politics of memory are important due to the fact that the Russian society does not have a consensus regarding the heritage of the "Imperial" and "Soviet" periods of the Russian history, including the era of "Stalinism". Well-balanced politics of memory on the Russian historical past should be conducted based on a wide civil consensus, which would exclude a vivid “witch hunt” and exposure of political opponents under the pretense of the search for “enemies of the state”

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