Reconciliation with – or rehabilitation of – the Soviet past?

Abstract

Post-Soviet Russia’s ambivalent efforts to confront its Stalinist past have generated heated discussion about what should be remembered. Official ambivalence is reflected in school history texts that emphasize Soviet achievements, in commissions that gate-keep archives and historical facts, and in monuments and commemorations. In consequence, the surviving victims of Stalinism are insufficiently acknowledged, let alone compensated. This tension forms the central focus of this article as it explores the individual, public, and official efforts in the aftermath of seven decades of state-sponsored repression to remember, represent and even rehabilitate the Stalinist past. The prevalence of the state-sponsored narrative over the victims’ counter-histories indicates the persistence of a post-Communist repression which is part cause and part effect of the failure/lack of transitional justice mechanisms.