War Memorial Research Articles

Western tourism at Cu Chi and the memory of war in Vietnam: Dialogical effects of the carnivalesque

In this article we analyze the social memories of the Vietnam War afforded by tourism at the Cu Chi battlefield. Specifically, we explore the experiences of tourists at the site in order to address the under-theorized relationship between carnivalesque and dialogical discourses. Drawing on field interviews and ethnographic engagement with young adult Western tourists who took tours led by Vietnamese guides, we document how the tourists’ playful engagement with the past at Cu Chi facilitates the development of new dialogical memories of the war. Our interviews reveal a strong concern with the suffering of both occupying forces and the Vietnamese communist forces, a finding that points to the need for scholars to better appreciate the multiplicity of ways that social performances function in shaping social memory. Ultimately, we challenge social performance theories whose explanations reduce shifts in social memory to audience interpretations of authenticity.

Bring on The Parade: queer cinema, memories of war and transnationalism in Srđan Dragojević’s Parada (2011)

ABSTRACT This article examines Srđan Dragojević’s film The Parade (Parada), a co-production between Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monte Negro, Slovenia and the Council of Europe, analysing how it engages with both queer rights and nationalist memory narratives. The Parade was released in 2011, a year after an anti-gay riot led to more than 100 people being injured at Belgrade Pride. In spite of these events, Dragojević’s comedy-drama and its depiction of an unlikely friendship between a homophobic criminal and a gay veterinarian became a box-office hit both in Serbia and in neighbouring countries. This popularity is all the more interesting due to how the film depicts not only LGBTQI activism, but also the history of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the question of transnational solidarity. In doing so, The Parade is emblematic of other queer films produced in the region, with works such as the Croatian Fine Dead Girls and The Constitution, the Bosnian Go West and the Slovenian Guardian of the Frontier also thematising homophobic prejudice in conjunction with nationalism and memories of war. Drawing on this, this article examines how The Parade and other films in the region such as Rajko Grlić’s The Constitution address queer identity, memory and (trans)nationalism.

Фигура С. Родса в контексте "войн памяти" Соединённого Королевства 2020-2021 гг.

He political movement “Black Lives Matter” has activated a new stage of development of the “memory wars” in Europe. A new life stage of “memorial wars” is connected with the development of discussions about the role of imperial heritage and memorials of politicians and colonists in the past. The article analyses one of the most resonant episodes of these events - the debate about the toppling of statues of British politician C. Rhodes. The goal of this research is to identify the role of the personality of C. Rhodes in the “memory wars” of Great Britain. The sources of the article consist of materials from the periodical press, social networks and speeches by representatives of the Conservative and Labour Parties of the United Kingdom. The research was created in the functional paradigm, which provides to explore relationships between activists of the “Black Lives Matter”, “Rhodes Mast Fall” and the largest political parties in Great Britain. The article identifies the key arguments of each side in the conflict. It provides that the most of the supporters who side with the toppling of the monument to C. Rhodes are descendants of migrants of different generations. Therefore, this discussion represented for them a painful narrative of the exploitation of colonies by the metropolises. Based on the application of critical discourse analysis, there is a note that the position of supporters of the preservation of the monument is based on the special significance of the imperial heritage of Great Britain as an integral part of national identity. Finally, the research concludes that the analysis of the case of C. Rhodes demonstrates the incompleteness of the decolonization process.

ПАМ’ЯТЬ ПРО ДРУГУ СВІТОВУ ВІЙНУ В УМОВАХ РОСІЙСЬКО- УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ВІЙНИ: ПОСТАНОВКА ПРОБЛЕМИ

Today, in the conditions of a full-scale brutal war unleashed by the Russian Federation, Ukraine is experiencing the greatest upheaval since the World War ІІ. The memory of the previous war on Ukrainian territory played and continues to play a significant role in the scientific, political, and cultural spheres. The purpose of this article is to highlight the main aspects of the study of the memory of the Second World War in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war (since 2014). We believe, that the proposed directions are relevant today and in the future. Before the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, post (Soviet) and national narratives of the politics and culture of remembrance of the Second World War existed simultaneously in the Ukrainian discourse. After the mentioned events, and especially after the legally enshrined refusal of using the term "Great Patriotic War" and other changes, the national paradigm of war memory was finally established. There have been decisive changes in the politics of memory, historical politics, commemorative practices, the teaching of the events of World War II history in school, etc. This article proposes and briefly analyzes problems that, in our opinion, may be of interest to Ukrainian and foreign researchers of enshrined refusal memory, memory politics, historical politics, etc. That is Euromaidan, the beginning of Russian aggression and a rethinking of the previous paradigm of commemoration of the war, in particular the "decommunization laws" of 2015. The impact of a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, legislative changes in 2023. Russian instrumentalization of commemoration of the Second World War in the conditions of hybrid and full-scale wars and the Ukrainian response. "Places of memory" dedicated to the war in urban space and changes in commemorative practices. Memory of the Second World War in toponymy - the dynamics of changes. Images of war in the educational process, etc.

Narrating Canadian War Memorials, Understanding National Identity

Pierre Berton writes that “Canada, more than most countries, is a nation of … memorials”. Yet, with the passage of time, war memorials inevitably tend to lose their original significance, becoming altogether ‘invisible’ for historically-estranged generations. Hence the need for re-remembering war memorials and monuments for the purposes of consolidating a (national) collective memory. The aim of this paper is a comparative analysis of Fields of Sacrifice (1963, dir. Donald Brittain), Herbert Fairlie Wood’s and John Swettenham’s Silent Witnesses (1974), Robert Shipley’s To Mark Our Place (1987), and Robert Konduras’s and Richard Parrish’s World War I: A Monumental History (2014) within the context of the theoretical distinction between memorial and monument cultures in order to discuss the defining ideological tropes of ‘Canadianness’.

Representation of the Historical Memory of the Great Patriotic War in the Historical and Cultural Landscape of the Cross-Border Region

The article deals with the formation and representation of the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War in the cross-border territory of the Augustów Canal (the border areas of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania). The subject of the research is the fates of the servicemen of the 68th Grodno Fortified Region, who were the first to receive the attack of the Nazi troops in June 1941. The research uses the archival documents, published and unpublished memoirs of the direct participants of the events, results of the research of the battlefields on the territory of Belarus and Poland. The author believes that for the formation and representation of collective historical memory and identity the results of research using special historical methods and active use of various forms of commemorative practices are relevant: publication of scientific and popular scientific literature, which popularizes the historical and cultural heritage of the region, inclusion of monuments and memorial places in the State List of Historical and Cultural Values, installation of monuments, memorial signs and information posts, development of tourist routes and carrying out military-historical reconstructions, creation of museums and museum expositions.

Film Studio as an Institution for War Memory? “Authoritative Viewers” and the Soviet Production of Cultural Trauma (1960–1980s)

The institutional approach in memory studies implies the study of stable organizational structures responsible for the production of cultural memory. Addressing the problem of late-Soviet institutions of memory of the Great Patriotic War in the 1960s-1980s, the author considers the film studio, using “Lenfilm” as an example, as a special institution of memory and cultural trauma of the war. Based on institutional sources (script files, artistic councils, etc.), the author proposes to study the production of Soviet films about the war as the interaction of a complex system of conflicting “authoritative viewers” who had (relative) autonomy, functions, and a different type of authority in judging the past – the “power of memory». The author substantiates a typology of such “memory power” (“author power”, “studio power”, “power of the cultural bureaucracy”, “party power”, “military power”, “corporate power”, and “media power”) and summarizes the main properties inherent in the system of cultural production that influenced the film memory of the war in the “long 1970s” – its stability, “institutional opacity”, “constant bargaining”, overlapping party-bureaucratic control, contestation and defense of the “autonomy of the author”.

БЛОКАДА И КОМПЬЮТЕР: «ЦИФРОВОЕ ВООБРАЖЕНИЕ» В ПАМЯТИ О ВЕЛИКОЙ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ВОЙНЕ В 1980-Е ГГ.?

The article raises the problem of “digital imagination” in the cultural memory of the Great Patriotic War and the blockade of Leningrad in the 1980s. Using the example of the unfilmed screenplay of the documentary film Blockade and Computer (1983) by L. Magrachev and E. Taluntis (perhaps the earliest example of digital memory of the Siege) the author shows how the traditional discourse about the heroism and suffering of siege survivors, the “Western falsification of history” and the “rational enemy” is refracted into the screenwriters’ fantastic hypothesis of a supercomputer with which “imperialist strategists” seek to code the “Leningrad heights of the human spirit” to scientifically understand and defeat the Soviet man. The author concludes about the paradox of the “digital imagination” of the memory of the war, in which a “smart machine” acting as an analytical tool of the enemy is at the same time an effective tool to confirm the “historical truth” about the Siege of Leningrad and to analyze its “absolute archive”. At the same time, the author argues that, for all the strangeness of such an “imaginary film”, it cannot be considered an anomaly, and in the early 1980s “digital imagination” penetrated even the Party discourse of memory about the war.

Восприятие Чемпионата мира по футболу 2022 г. в Катаре в арабской либеральной аналитике как форма политики памяти

Introduction. The author analyzes the informa- tional discourse of the World Cup in Qatar through the prism of collective historical memory. It is assumed that the Qatari Championship turned out to be both a sporting and political event. The article highlights the main problems that formed the information agenda, as well as the vectors and trajectories of the interpretation and perception of the Championship by liberal analysts and experts. Goal. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main directions of the liberal perception of the World Cup in Qatar in the information discourse of “Al-Araby Al-Jadeed” through the prism of the historical politics of memory. Methods. The author uses the methods proposed within the memorial turn in modern interdiscipli- nary historiography, which make it possible to iden- tify and systematize the features of the transfor- mation of the collective historical memory of Arab societies through the prism of sports, actualised by the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Scientific novelty. The article is one of the few at- tempts to interpret the historical politics of memory in modern society in the context of the perception of sports as an element of the memorial culture and historical experience of the Arab societies of the Middle East. Results. The article analyzes the main vectors and trajectories of the use of sports for the politiciza- tion and ideologization of historical memory. It is assumed that the Championship stimulated political and ideological contradictions between Arab experts on the issues of collective historical and political experience, as well as its reflection in memorial cultures. The author believes that Arab analysts formally used sports events to update the political, social and economic problems and contradictions of the Middle East through the prism of historical memory, visualizing the trauma of the colonial and orientalist heritage. Conclusions. It is shown that the Championship ac- tualized political contradictions in the perception of current historical experience, visualizing the lines of ideological demarcation between Arab intellectuals who actively used sports as an information occa- sion for discussing the problems of historical poli- tics and the politics of collective memory, including the perception of the place and role of authoritari- anism, democracy and human rights in contempo- rary memorial cultures. The author believes that the reaction of the elites to the attempts of the liberal media to turn sport into a space for memo- rial conflicts and wars of memory was minimal, as the elites were focused on maintaining control and receiving economic dividends from the World Cup. It is shown that the politicization of sports has become the contribution of modern liberal media to the aggravation of wars of memory as a form of memorial conflicts in the Arab world.

БАЛКАНЫ: РАЗДЕЛЕННЫЕ ИЛИ РАЗДЕЛИВШИЕСЯ? АНАЛИЗ НАРРАТИВОВ БАЛКАНСКОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ НА ПОСТЪЮГОСЛАВСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ

The states of the former Yugoslavia and, more broadly, the Balkans today remain one of the reference points of world politics. In many ways, the Balkan Peninsula is still considered the “powder keg of Europe” due to the political division of its communities. However, the well-established toolkit for analyzing political processes in the region often reveals its predictive failure. One of the solutions in constructing trajectories for the political development of the Balkans can be an identity prism of research. In the context of the exacerbation of ethno-political conflicts after the disintegration of the SFRY, the competition of national projects and discourses of the development of newly formed polities, wars of memory and the struggle of historical narratives, economic crises and the global reorganization of the world, this paper presents a classification of post-Yugoslav states according to the nature of the politicization of social divisions that accompany identification processes in the region. Exploring the historical and political development of the Balkans and its modern narratives, the article proposes a new approach to the identity analysis of the former Yugoslavia countries - the “Center - Frontier” polarity, as well as a cognitive map of the region based on this approach.

Artistic commemoration of the wars in Germany

The research addresses the topic of artistic commemoration of the wars in which Germany took part: from the victorious Franco-Prussian War to two crushing defeats in world wars. The article is devoted to the military monuments (Kriegerdenkmal), which were erected at every stage of German history: the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, the GDR and the FRG. The commemoration of the wars pursued various goals: the rise of Reich patriotism and the glorification of national unity, popular pacifism, instilling aggressive nationalism, overcoming the past. The symbolism of the memorials stemmed not only from the results of the wars, but also from previous historical experience. This is the time during which the nation has gone from the idea of its own exclusivity to the need for atonement and the formation of a "culture of memory" addressed to the younger generation. War memorials erected in the second half of the XIX – XX centuries are of two different types: tombstones erected directly over the graves of fallen soldiers and monuments commemorating the event, but not being an index of the grave. For the Franco-Prussian and World War I, examples of war memorials installed on graves, including monuments to opponents, are most characteristic. The theme of memorials dedicated to the Second World War is much more diverse. In addition to military cemeteries, they reflect the history of concentration camps, Resistance, Operation Tiergartenstrasse 4. After World War II, the memorial was assigned the role of a monument in the name of peace.

Memorials as a part of the political symbolic space in Prague

Memorials, as pieces of art in public space, have not only an aesthetic function, but also a commemorative, representative, and ideological one. They materialize social discourse and national values that change over time. The social relationship to memorials shapes their symbolism, which is a part of the political symbolic space. The aim of the article is to determine how memorials are involved in this symbolic space (how memorials from various eras are distributed in Prague, which localities might have symbolic connotations, and how this symbolism can be interpreted). Free-standing memorials in the public space of Greater Prague have been included in the research, demonstrating different spatial patterns and symbolism. While the most dominant memorials, dedicated to figures associated with the Czech National Revival, are concentrated in the city center, war memorials, the most common type of memorial, are scattered evenly throughout the city. The reinterpretation of historical events and memorials after the fall of Communism has created conflicting sites of memory, which relate to current Czech-Russian relations and the aftermath of the historical Czech-German national conflict.

Evolution of the concept of genocide through the lens of modern “memory wars”: International legal and intrastate dimensions

The article examines how the concept of genocide has evolved at the international and national legal levels, beginning with its origins at the doctrinal level and culminating in international conventions and national regulatory acts. Challenges regarding the definition of genocide and ambiguous interpretation of genocide in relation to crimes against humanity were identified. It is demonstrated that international justice bodies interpret the concept of genocide differently. The study concluded that humanity did not fully utilize the potential of the United Nations and International Criminal Tribunals in order to develop a joint measured approach to assessing historical events, specifically World War II and the genocide in 1939–1945, in the context of actualizing history and triggering memory wars. The positions of states to consolidate the crime of genocide in criminal legislation are considered: compliance with the definition of genocide in international conventions, extension of the list of groups against whose members the genocide can be committed, leaving the list open as to which groups can be included. The preferences of the second option are shown. Examples of states turning to the facts of genocide committed in the past are given (for instance, Armenia towards Turkey, Namibia towards Germany, Poland towards Germany and Russia, Russia towards Germany and its allies during World War II), and it has been suggested that the material responsibility of states cannot be applied to events before 1945, since the desire to avoid it leads to non-recognition of political international-legal responsibility.

Modern Politics, Old Graves: Memory Wars and the Rise of Illiberalism in Germany and the Russian Federation

This work interrogates the memory practices and policies of modern illiberal movements in the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany, with a focus on coverage of the concentration camps and Gulag system. Having evaluated the current status of legal restrictions, fringe political groups, and advocacy NGOs in these states, and having contrasted the origins of this precarious state of affairs between the two cases, my analysis indicates that illiberal movements have sought to undermine and redefine conventional history and distort the memory of the past in both nations.

Memory Wars and the Problem of Socio-Epistemological Relativism

Memory Wars and the Problem of Socio-Epistemological Relativism

ИСТОРИЧЕСКАЯ ПОЛИТИКА И МЕМОРИАЛЬНАЯ КУЛЬТУРА СОВРЕМЕННОГО ВЕНГЕРСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА

This study analyzes the current memory policy in modern-day Hungary during the early 2020s. The author studies the role and place of intellectual communities as the main spaces of the genesis of memory and the functioning of memorial cultures and collective historical memory in modern social and political thought of Hungary. The article demonstrates that the intellectual community, as a systemic component of contemporary Hungarian society, plays a vital role in developing and transforming memorial culture. Additionally, Hungarian intellectual agents of historical memory politics and shapers of various memorial cultures engage in a spectrum of memorial practices that range from historical revisionism to attempts to create a liberal memorial canon. Thirdly, the memorial practices of the modern intellectual community are linked to the development of nationalist discourse, represented by ethnic and civic nationalisms. Besides, the participation of intellectuals in memorial politics actualizes the political and ideological heterogeneity of modern Hungarian society, contributing to the simultaneous development and competition of various forms of historical memories, stimulating memorial confrontations and memory wars. It is assumed that the role of society in the historical politics of modern Hungary will increase, and intellectuals as memory activists will remain among the main active participants of memorial politics.

Collective historical memory of the First World War in Russia and Belarus in the context of commemorative practices of the XXI century

Collective historical memory of the First World War in Russia and Belarus in the context of commemorative practices of the XXI century

Implementation of the Master plan for the restoration and development of Leningrad in terms of organizing cultural and educational work in 1945

After the Great Patriotic War, the interest towards the history of the city increased among Leningraders, also the regional cultural identity developed, reinforced by the tragic experience of the siege. During this period, the organization of cultural and educational work in Leningrad became one of the most important activities of local authorities. The article is devoted to aspects of the implementation of the cultural and educational policy in Leningrad in 1945, viewed through the prism of the key principles reflected in the Master Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of Leningrad. The main emphasis in the article is made on the consideration of organizational issues that were under the jurisdiction of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council of Workers’ Deputies. Even before the end of the war, on March 15, 1945, the Department of Cultural and Educational Work was formed. The key vectors of work were: to restore the tourism potential of the suburbs of Leningrad, organization of museum work in terms of preserving the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the blockade, erection of memorials dedicated to the Leningrad epic… The post-war Master Plan was not fully implemented because of the Leningrad affair. This research problem has not been studied enough, although certain aspects of the topic were reflected in historical, museological and cultural literature. The source base for the study was the regulatory and legal materials and office documentation of the Leningrad City Executive Committee of the 1940s, materials from periodicals, data from official museum sites.

Inside the Memorial Culture of the Chechen Republic: from the Present to the Recreated Past

The aim of the study is to analyze the modern Chechen Republic memorial culture. The author proceeds from the fact that the Chechnya past outside the republic, as a rule, is limited to the memory of the Caucasian War (in connection with the historical figure of Imam Shamil) and the armed actions of the post-Soviet period of 1994–1996 and 1999–2009, which are often referred to as "Chechen wars" or "Chechen campaigns". The novelty of the study lies in the modern Chechen memorial culture research in the context of the post-conflict stage of the North Caucasian republic formation, where there are very few interdisciplinary studies. The article identifies a selection of key historical events on which the Chechen memorial culture is constructed: 1) the movement under the leadership of Sheikh Mansur; 2) the Caucasian War; 3) the revolution of 1917 and the civil war; 4) Soviet Chechnya (Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic); 5) Great Patriotic War/deportation 1944; 6) "Chechen revolution" 1991, Dudayev's regime, civil war in Chechnya 1994, "first Chechen war", interwar crisis, "second Chechen war", abolition of the counter-terrorist operation regime (WHO) and the development of the republic. The author applies A. Assman's model of commemoration “to remember never to forget” to the Chechen memorial culture, since it involves the preservation of the past and the integration of the memory of the event into a collective identity. At the same time, the article reveals the shortcomings of this model and shows the gradual institutionalization of the commemorative practice of the victims of deportation remembrance in the post-conflict period of the republic development.

On “Reliving the Past”: An Anthropologist’s Perspective

The article presents a theoretical conceptualization of the metaphor of “reliving the past” for ethnographic fieldwork use. The following three issues are elaborated: (1) how the metaphor of “reliving the past” is present in the academic literature; (2) what anthropological theories inspire the proposed use of the notion of “reliving the past”; and (3) how the use of this kind of “theory” and “method” might affect the practice of ethnographic fieldwork. The article is based on the author’s experience gathered during the realization of research on the memory of the Second World War and the post-war period in the Podhale region.