Warped mourning: stories of the undead in the land of the unburied

Abstract

After Stalin's death in 1953, Soviet Union dismantled enormous system of terror and torture that he had created. But there has never been any Russian ban on former party functionaries, nor any external authority to dispense justice. Memorials to Soviet victims are inadequate, and their families have received no significant compensation. This book's premise is that late Soviet and post-Soviet culture, haunted by its past, has produced a unique set of memorial practices. More than twenty years after collapse of Soviet Union, Russia remains the land of unburied: events of mid-twentieth century are still very much alive, and still contentious. Alexander Etkind shows how post-Soviet Russia has turned painful process of mastering past into an important part of its political present.