Social Memory in the Narratives of Siberians: the Truthfulness of History and the Truth of Memory

Abstract

Historical memory is a part of social memory, it is politicized and does not allow alternatives in interpretations. Social memory is valueless, it is transmitted from older generations to descendants in the form of images and interpretations of events. If the state policy corresponds to the sociocodes of the community culture, then the images of social memory do not contradict the interpretations and content of historical documents. Historical events of a traumatic nature, as a rule, differentiate interpretations of past events, reflected by contradictions between official and unofficial narratives.The object of the study is social memory imprinted in unofficial narratives of Siberians that contradict official historical narratives. The subject of the study is the contradictions caused by different interpretations of historical events between subjects of official history and carriers of social memory. The novelty lies in the application of a hybrid methodological complex, with the help of which the analysis of contradictions in official and unofficial narratives of Siberians in different historical periods and in different socio-political situations (resettlement, dispossession, war years) was carried out. The peculiarities of the interpretation of empirical material are related to the specifics of understanding the contradictions between the truth of history and the truth of historical memory. At the junction of the types of truth, one can see the uniqueness of historical reality. The authors have revealed that social memory determines the differentiation of interpretations of historical events, includes a program of social inheritance of images of the past. The meanings of "historical truth" and the truth of memory are ambiguously intertwined in the collective consciousness of Siberians.