Siberian album "Halmg Unn": Transformation of historical memory

Abstract

The article presents the project “Siberian Album” of the Kalmyk newspaper “Halmg Unn” as a resource for preserving collective, family memory associated with tragic events in the past of the Kalmyks – the exile of the people to Siberia. Family photos and albums are presented as translators and custodians of historical events in places of settlements, as obvious witnesses of the past. The traumatic experience generated by demographic losses during the deportation of the Kalmyk people still has an exceptional effect on the life of modern Kalmyk society, forms its identity and transforms the structure of memory about the past. This has been demonstrated most clearly by the active participation of the region population in the Siberian Album project. Siberian photographs continue to evoke bitter memories of injustice, of exile, but at the same time, for many, these were the years of youth, study, friendship with peers, so many bright, joyful experiences remain in their memory. Despite the well-developed methodological tools of memory policy, new discourses are fixed in this problem area. These include, in particular, “post-memory” as a new discursive form of broadcasting historical memory and constructing an image of the past with the help of media technologies. The project “Siberian Album” of the Republican newspaper can be considered as a demonstration of the memory of an individual, family, dynasty. When analyzing commemorative practices, it is worth highlighting an important component of the national memory policy – “historical trauma”, that is, traumatic, painful memories of past events of both an individual actor and a community (family, people, etc.).