Russian Memory Research Articles

New Local History projects in the unofficial history of the city: The case of St. Petersburg

The problem of interpreting local history is relevant to St. Petersburg, as to many other major historical cities. This article examines phenomena united by the concepts of local (spatial) myth and urban narrative, which go beyond official discourse. Alternative images of the city, based on its concealed places of interest contrast with one of the most widespread representations of St. Petersburg – its association with the heritage of imperial culture. The selection of memorable places and stories shifts from recognizable city landmarks to other objects that reveal the history and image of particular St. Petersburg sites, people’s daily lives and peripheral issues of urban life. This approach to the exploration of urban space, a phenomenon called New Local History, is presented and explained in the article as the rediscovery of the historical potential of the city. The examples given in the article also show the possible role of New Local History in encouraging residents to develop an interest in their own history, in the problems of modernity and in participating in socially significant projects. Trends in interaction with urban space and memory practices that offer alternative interpretations of the past have been identified in various socio-cultural initiatives. In the context of Russian memory politics, this approach often becomes oppositional.

FAMILY MEMORY AS A FACTOR IN THE FORMATION OF CIVIC IDENTITY OF YOUTH. SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

The article analyzes and summarizes the results of a qualitative sociological study of the family memory of young people. generation of “centennials”, using the example of students of Mordovian State University, implemented by the method of in-depth interviews in order to identify the main characteristics of the family memory of young people in the context of the formation of their civic identity. Regular interaction of the family with wider communities of memory, as well as institutional “places of memory”, in modern Russia has been established, including the exchange of information and material evidence of memory through digital and traditional archives, museums, local history publications, the media, etc., construction “assemblage points” between significant people and events in the history of the family, on the one hand, and the country, on the other, through which the historical past of the country is included in the family narrative, and the family's past in the public memorial culture. The similarities and differences between the basic structure of informants' family memory narratives and the official narrative of Russian memory policy are shown. It was revealed that the family memory of “centennials” mediates the individual's connection not with individual social groups, formed in the form of mnemonic communities, but with the community of memory of an indefinite set of people, which can be correlated with the category of “people” as a state-civil community

Identity and historical memory of Russians in the context of confrontation with the "collective West"

Basing on the data of long-term sociological research, the authors study the influence of the construct “collective West” on the civic identity and historical memory of modern Russian society and investigate the dynamics of these attitudes of public society under the influence of the international political situation. “Collective West” is considered as a stereotypical construct founded on Russian public opinion and political discourse. The authors identify three main approaches to the description of the “collective West”: socio-economic and political approaches, as well as the strategy of studying the organisation of private life. This allows us to correlate the features attributed to the discursively constructed “Other” with the ideas about the “collective West” actualized in the mass consciousness of modern Russians. The authors summarize that the Russian collective identity combines both traditional-self, Russian, and Western-liberal values. But Russians are unambiguous when it comes to the interpretation of historical memory: they acutely perceive the discrepancy between Russian and Western interpretations of the past.
 The “collective West” has acted for Russia not only as a traditional socio-cultural and civilizational “Other”, but also as geopolitical competitor. Hence this is the peculiarity of interpretations of past events and historical memory in Russia and abroad. The “perestroika inertia” of attempts to reconcile different versions of the past was replaced in the 2000s by a sharp anti-communist discourse of a number of Eastern European states, their “turn” to the West and Russia’s growing external isolation. This revitalized the conflict between the national historical narratives of Russia and Western countries, and this is very painful for Russian society today. Negative interpretation of the events of Soviet history, especially of the memory of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, is absolutely unacceptable for the Russian historical memory. Russian people react to the attempts to revise the traditional interpretations of Russian history with the demand for reliable historical knowledge. People attitude to preserve the established interpretation of national history is related not to the fear of decentralization tendencies, as it was in the 1990s, but to their desire to protect the history of their families and family memory.

Утопия, война, постапокалипсис: образ СССР в зарубежных и российских видеоиграх

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the representation of the image of the USSR in foreign and domestic video games. The main purpose of the study is to examine the specifics of the impact of video games on the historical memory of the Soviet past. Theoretical analysis. The study was based on the hypothesis that video games in the conditions of mediatization and digitalization of public consciousness turn into one of the significant factors in the formation of historical memory. The research interest in the representation of images related to Soviet history in video games is conditioned by the policy of returning the Soviet heritage to the Russian ideological and socio-political discourse. Since Soviet history, and primarily the period of the Great Patriotic War, has become a significant element of contemporary Russian memory politics, there is a need to analyze the specifics of the images of the USSR constructed and broadcast by both domestic and foreign video games. Conclusion. As the study has shown, foreign video games are characterized by a predominantly negative image of the USSR based on Cold War stereotypes. Domestic video games broadcast various images of the Soviet past, which can be considered as a tool for reflection on the history of the Soviet Union and working through the historical trauma associated with its collapse.

Consolidation of the Russian society under contemporary challenges: Social-historical and value contexts

Civil identity is one of the key resources for uniting Russian society. It is based on the historical self-awareness, common historical memory, joint commemoration of significant historical events and achievements of the state and society. Civil identity of the Russian nation is concentrated around the Soviet legacy: Russian reality is filled with Soviet reminiscences and markers of historical memory, many of which act as ‘links’ for the differentiated social space. However, the Soviet period is becoming increasingly distant, full of myths and simplified interpretations. Therefore, the increased attention to the interpretation of ambiguous events of the Soviet history may cause a critical revision of the Soviet value paradigm in relation to the historical heritage and the policy of memory and become a catalyst for centrifugal sentiments, creating threats to the state security and integrity. The efficiency of state institutions and prospects of civil society structures depend on the dominant identity markers in the mass consciousness and on the most important reference groups for self-identification. Thus, the study of the historical consciousness and memory of Russians as the basic principles of national consensus and the analysis of the features of the post-crisis historical worldview of different groups in the Russian society are of particular relevance. Based on the monitoring research data from the IS FCTAS RAS surveys (conducted in 2020-2023 on the representative all-Russian regionalized quota sample; N = 2000) and an integrated approach, the authors assess the historical and value consciousness of Russians under contemporary challenges: interest in history and historical facts, perception of historical periods and leading historical figures; attitude to national history, formation of the all-Russian identity and the role of family memory in this process; a ‘new vision’ of Russia and its future, a trend to rethink the idea of change and the path of national development, understood in the mass consciousness through the original model of the world order and civilizational sovereignty; ideas about key social groups that contribute to or hinder national development, and about the tasks to be solved on the path to creating future Russia. The main conclusions of the research are presented in the article in the form of postulates.

Heroes and heroism as representations of collective memory

The article presents the results of the interdisciplinary philosophical-sociological study of heroism. In the theoretical introductory part, the authors conducted the semiotic analysis of the concept of heroism in the context of the concept of chronotope in Western-European culture; identified the constants of the Russian semantics of the ‘hero’, ‘heroism’ and ‘heroic’; described the dynamics of changes in the meanings of the ‘heroic’, ‘deed’ and ‘feat’. The sociological approach follows the philosophical understanding of heroism and considers this phenomenon through a social relationship (In N.K. Mikhailovsky’s perspective). To comprehend the relationship between the hero and the crowd, the authors refer to such sociological approaches as creative and relational theories of social action and P. Donati’s relational sociology. The empirical part presents the results of the sociological survey of 1,350 Russians from different generations in eight federal districts; thus, the authors consider the concepts of hero and heroism as representations of collective (historical) memory. The empirical study consisted of two parts: the first one focused on the collective memory of Russians and their historical knowledge, the second one - on heroes and heroism in the interpretation of the Soviet and post-Soviet generations. The results of the first part show the general weakening of collective memory, and the events of older history are less interesting and less known than, for example, those of the Soviet period. Most of the significant events in the Russian history are perceived as triumphant, not as traumatic, and most military campaigns, including the current ones, are perceived through the figure of the winner, not the loser. Respondents believe that there was more heroism in the past. Heroism is associated with such personal qualities as strength, activity, a sense of duty, desire to save others not for profit, the ability not to give up even in the most difficult situation. The hero is perceived not only as a savior, but also as a truth-seeker, which is especially significant for Soviet generations.

“The Moscow Miracle”: a Representation of the “Nineties” in the TV Program “Namedni”

The article is devoted to the study of the memory of the 1990s in Russia. The main purpose is to determine the significance of television documentary films, namely the television project “Namedni”, in the process of shaping the memory of Russians about the initial stage of post-Soviet Russia. The episodes of the program “Namedni”, devoted to the period from 1990 to 1999, have been analyzed. The qualitative content analysis of the series was conducted on the basis of the thematic categories: politics, social sphere, economy, culture (sports) and the subject criteria: story title, content, timing, personalities and key details, as well as the organization of the story. The predominantly negative perception of the period of the “nineties” in Russia is not confirmed in the episodes of the program “Namedni”. Political and economic themes predominate in most of the episodes, and the 1990s are presented as an optimistic “era of change”, symbolizing a fleeting transition from the old to a potentially positive and bright new. The ambiguity of the positive image of the 1990s is determined by the low attention of the authors of the program to the events of the regional scale, most of the subjects refer to either global or the capital city events of the past.

About the war in Ukraine: the price of democracy

The article analyzes the political motives of Ukrainian resistance to Russian invasion and aggression. First of all, it emphasizes the falsification of history by Russian propaganda, its use of history as a political instrument, the destruction of the traumatic memory of the recent imperial past and the glorification of the “glorious centuries-old” imperial history in modern Russia. This determines the difference in the structure of the historical memory of Russians and other former peoples of the empire, and the recent memory of the tragic imperial past is the leading factor in the choice of the Ukrainian and Moldovan peoples for their political destiny. The article also shows that this choice, as well as the desire for truth, freedom and rights, determines these peoples’ slow but sure progress toward democracy. These choices and aspirations are at the same time a determining factor in the ability of the Ukrainian people to resist Russian armed aggression. Instead, the so-called “civilizational” links between the former peoples of the empire, with which Russia tries to justify its aggression, are actually a cover for its desire for political dominance. The article also outlines the importance of Ukrainian resistance for European democracies, calling for their unconditional support. The war in Ukraine is a challenge for them, because no matter what problems democracies around the world are facing today, they will remain actors of their own history only if they provide support to all those who resist the destruction of the minimum of rights and freedoms that define democracy. Using Kant’s work «Perpetual Peace» as an example, the article also shows that the cessation of war for the sake of cessation of war, which is often called for today, will not contribute to the establishment of peace. It will leave grounds for the renewal of war, which the aggressor, if he will not change its political essence, will always be able to use it again.

Sympathy for the Devil: General Vlasov in the Collective Memory of the Great Patriotic War in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract: Andrei Andreevich Vlasov, a Soviet general who sought to create a Russian Liberation Army under German auspices during World War II, has been the focal point of debates about wartime collaboration that reflect deep divides in memory of the Great Patriotic War and the Stalin era in post-Soviet Russia. Memory entrepreneurs in the literary world, the Orthodox Church and the historical profession have reappropriated Vlasov, inserting him in anti-Soviet historical narratives as a hero, symbol or martyr. Meanwhile, patriotic intellectuals in the Putin years have invoked Vlasov as a figure of national treachery and use him to discredit their political opponents. The debate over Vlasov points to the fractured and unproductive nature of national collective memory in Russia.

“Between Past and Future”: Discussions on Politics of Memory in Russia and Belarus

The article presents a comparative analysis of the politics of memory in Belarus and Russia. The main periods of its transformation in 1990—2010s are specified. The question about the strategy of interaction between the main actors of memory policy is posed. The perspectives of memory studies development, related to the question about the future, which is very rarely raised in modern studies, although it is fundamental for all actors, are outlined. Another important gap in contemporary memory studies seems to be the question of practices of commemoration, which form not only national and local communities, but also decentralized affective relations of a new type. The authors advocate the thesis that the key role in contemporary Russian and Belarusian memory politics is played by the restriction of presentistic subordination of past and future to pragmatic interests of the present.

«Где раз поднят русский флаг, там он спускаться не должен»

Natalya Alekseevna Shabelnikova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Police Colonel, Honored Worker of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. She is the author of scientific research on the history of law enforcement agencies in a wide problem-thematic and chronological range. This interview was agreed in October 2022 during the scientific official journey N. A. Shabelnikova in Omsk to participate in the work of the II All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference «Activities of domestic special services in the era of social cataclysms». The interview was given remotely, and then edited by Natalya Alekseevna from Vladivostok in January 2023. The conversation was devoted to the prospects for studying the history of Russian special services in Russia, modern estimates of the historiography of the Civil War in the Far East and the policy of preserving historical memory in Russia.

Историческое наследие как ценность российского общества: историко-правовой ракурс

Introduction. The article is devoted to the current policy of memory in Russia and its relationship with social trends, which is a two-pronged process of transformation of communicative and cultural memory.Materials and methods. The main sources were materials of normative legal acts that underlie the current state policy for the preservation of historical memory and protection of the country's cultural heritage, as well as statistical data from analytical agencies and public opinion polls that characterize the ideas about the past that exist among Russians. The study is based on the concept of historical memory, as well as an interdisciplinary approach that involves the use of legal methods for analyzing normative legal acts.Results.The author analyzes the current state policy for the protection of cultural and historical heritage, and also correlates it with the general ideas about the past of the state that take place in Russian society. Conclusions are drawn regarding the specifics of the transformation of the ideas of Russians about the most significant dates and phenomena in the history of Russia, and the general vector of development of Russian society is also reflected.Conclusion. An analysis of the normative legal acts that underlie the state historical policy, as well as data from analytical centers, shows that at present we can observe a two-pronged process of dense interweaving of communicative and cultural memory. The events of the Great Patriotic war as a fundamental element for patriotic education in Russia continue to be part of the family history, passed down from generation to generation, and already have solid grounds for being part of the cultural memory of the people.

Illiberal Memory across Borders: Russian Conceptualizations and Uses of History Abroad

This article provides a typology of Russian memory practices in the international sphere and traces them to Russian foreign-policy doctrine. Drawing on primary sources, it argues that Russian uses of history abroad exemplify a growing transnational illiberal memory, in reaction to the liberal teleological formulation of history and reconciliation. The second section examines how the Russian state uses the politics of history within its own foreign policy and public diplomacy, drawing on an original dataset of Russian international memory activities. The findings are grouped into four categories: (1) memory exports, (2) alliances, (3) offense, and (4) defense. Memory exports and alliances inform memory diplomacy and are ways of promoting Russia, using its history as a soft-power resource. Memory offense and defense are practices within memory wars that indicate the geopolitical value placed by the Kremlin on protecting perceived historical resources. However, the findings also demonstrate that Russia does not prioritize the political threat posed by antithetical memory when there is no apparent political will to use the memory to challenge Russian geopolitical ambitions. It concludes that Russian memory engagement is defined by geopolitical competition against the West and then weighted against national security concerns and/or the potential to gain influence.

Knight at the Crossroads: Russian Memory Studies from 2010s to 2020s

Knight at the Crossroads: Russian Memory Studies from 2010s to 2020s

Archaic archetypes and symbols of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples: to debunk the myth of a single people

The article models the protocultural fields of the archetypal-mythological memory of Ukrainians and Russians as consisting of divergent elements. The core of the fields are archaic cultural archetypes and archetypal motifs “mother”, “field”, “plowman”, “labor”, “individualism”, and “equality” for Ukrainians, and “father”, “distance”, “vastness”, “inertia”, “collectivism”, and “submission” for Russians. The сore archetypes determine the differences in the ethnic mentality of two peoples and can enter the subsequent semiospheres and political mythology without significant adaptation, transforming into symbols of national identity. The periphery is formed by archetypes common, but re-articulated in subsequent semiospheres to be adapted to national narratives of different periods. The general archetype Sacred space was associated in the archaic consciousness of Ukrainians with the “House”, symbolizing the maternal principle and the Motherland, while the Russians embodied this archetype in the symbols of the Holy Mountain, metonymically expanded to the symbols of “Holy Rus”, Heartland, Rimland, defining the motif of messianism in symbolic politics of Russia. The archetype of the Hero is manifested in Ukrainian folklore by the images of the legendary plowmen, who conquer the steppe elements from the nomads, while in the Russian ethnic consciousness it is interpreted as the Messiah-Savior of the world.

SACRALIZATION OF THE OFFICIAL NARRATIVE OF HISTORICAL MEMORY IN RUSSIA IN EARLY ХХІCENTURY (ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPT OF A. AND J. ASSMAN)

The purpose of the article is to analyze the historical policy of the Russian Federation from the early 2000s to the present, in particular the sacralization of key issues of history based on the concept of Aleida and Jan Assmann. Research methodology. The study is based on the concept of A. and J. Assmann. Its application provides new opportunities for the researches of Russia's historical memory in a certain period, including the official narrative. In the course of the research, general scientific and specific historical methods, scientific criticism of sources, textual and hermeneutical analysis were used. Scientific novelty. The study analyzes the main changes in Russian legislation in 2014–2021 on historical memory, including a system of prohibitions, as well as other tools for sacralization of the official historical narrative. The possibility of applying A. Assman’s recommendations on the scientific and socio-political levels of discourse in the field of historical policy is determined. Conclusions. Russia's historical policy since the early 2000s has gone from preserving certain mechanisms for conducting independent historical research to gradually eliminating of these mechanisms and imposing the concept of the Russian Federation as the successor to the USSR and the Russian Empire. This was due to systemic restrictions and harassment on historical research, as well as in the field of education. As a result, there was an instrumentalization of history. Such a system is the foundation for the distortion and replacement of historical concepts and ideas. Historical memory in Russia is exclusively official in key issues for the Russian authorities. The non-admission of independent research to the formation of historical memory leads to a lack of self-criticism and legitimation of the crimes of the current Russian government.

The Study of Historical Memory in the Modern System of Humanitarian Knowledge

Relevance. This article discusses topical issues regarding the definition of such a concept as “memory studies”. This phenomenon is considered in a historical retrospective of modern Russian historiography. The main approaches to the definition of the following terms are analyzed: “memory studies”, “place of memory”, “historical memoryˮ, “social memory”, “collective memory”, “cultural memory”. This paper provides an overview of the main directions of Russian historiography in line with the latest research devoted to the study of such a phenomenon as “memory studies”. The purpose on the basis of the materials studied, to determine the most complete and clearly expressed definition of such a phenomenon and concept as “memory studies”. Objectives. to consider the main scientific works devoted to this issue, to analyze the totality of research in the field of studying Russian memory studies. To reveal the essence of the concept: “memory studies” in Russian historiography. Methodology. In the process of working on the study, the following research methods were used: comparison, analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy. Results. The development of this problem contributes to a deeper study of such a phenomenon as “memory studies”. This work reveals the essence and main directions in the study of memory studies in Russian historiography and gives one of the definitions of this phenomenon in the modern system of humanitarian knowledge. Conclusion. The construct “memory studies” itself is practically not found in academic works. This concept is closest to the concept: “historical memory” which most accurately reflects the general collective ideas, where the main meaning-forming construct is “memory”. The concept of memory plays a key role here.

Государственно-церковные отношения в обеспечении нетарифного регулирования трансграничного перемещения культурных ценностей

The development of customs control of cultural values that make up the historical and spiritual memory of Russia is an integral task of the relationship between the Federal Customs Service of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. The paper considers the key elements of modern interaction between two dominant institutional structures of modern Russia – the federal executive authority in the field of customs affairs, ensuring the performance of fiscal and law enforcement functions in ensuring the economic security of the state and the Russian Orthodox Church - the spiritual and moral center for ensuring the integrity of the Russian state throughout its more than 1000-year history.

Исторические нарративы и репрезентации войны в коллективной памяти сообществ Рунета: темпоральные траектории и семантические сети

The article analyses the collective representation of war narratives in the Russian social network VKontakte in the context of the problems of national self-consciousness and national identity. The material for the study was extracted by automated methods using the VKontakte open API. It amounts to 332,781 unique posts from open historical communities from January 1, 2020 to May 9, 2022. Using the PolyAnalyst platform, the authors found out that the word “war” is the most frequent and most significant (the metric takes into account the average frequency of a word in all texts) in this text collection. A sample of texts with the word “war” (49,736 posts) was subjected to additional analysis with a set of NLP methods to study key narratives and semantic connections. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the principles and approaches of modern narratology and the history of memory. The analysis of social media big data has confirmed that the dramatic historical fate of Russia, as a natural consequence of the factors of vast territory, extended borders, and abundance of natural resources, has shaped the mentality of Russians to be always ready for war. Thematic clustering of texts has confirmed the dominance of the practices of commemoration of the Great Patriotic War, reflected the etatism and etacratism of the Russian consciousness, demonstrated public attention to representations of war in art and science, and discovered the “trench truth” block and its place in the collective war representations. Narratives are often rich in details and facts, pragmatism, prosaic and rationalism. Empirical material confirms that the 20th century certainly occupies a special significance in the memory of Russians about wars. The authors comment on the rating of references to wars in the studied text collection and indicate the opposition of the Great Patriotic War to the Second World War, and the Patriotic War of 1812 to the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Some attention is also given to the issues of information wars in the modern world. The presented war narrative is of interest as the foundation of the “collective imaginary”, on the basis of which the prospects and critical boundaries of the image of the future are constructed.

Reformer before the Court of History: The Image of Peter the Great in the Collective Memory of Russians

Among the most notable figures of Russian history, the Russians especially single out Peter the Great. For a long time, sociological studies devoted to various aspects of the historical memory in Russian society have consistently shown that Russians value his historical role above the historical role of any of the subsequent statesmen, including those who led the country in Soviet times. In fact, the image of Peter the Great is perceived by the Russians as a paradigmatic image of a successful government corresponding to its purpose. This fact is very important for understanding peculiarities of the Russian social and political mentality, and therefore needs serious reflection, which is the subject of the above article, which based on the analysis of sociological data of different years. The author of the article asks the question of what exactly attracts Russians to the "glorious deeds" of Peter the Great and answers it by comparing perception of this grandiose historical figure with the collective assessments of images of other prominent figures of both the ancient and recent past using methods of sociological probing. Special attention is paid to comparing Peter the Reformer with the reformers of subsequent eras, including the "young reformers" of the 1990s who claimed a symbolic connection with Peter's transformations. In the course of this analysis, multifaceted semantics of the image of Peter the Great is revealed, but special attention is paid to the so-called "enlightenment Petrine" (an expression belonging to M.V. Lomonosov). The author proves that dominant position of Peter the Great’s image in our historical memory may be explained by the general sonority of the modern Russian mentality to the hierarchy of values that were established as priority public values during the Peter the Great’s Enlightenment and which ultimately determined the Russian model of modernity and modernization.