Memory Of Communism Research Articles

Communism in Post-communist Romania: An Ambivalent Legacy

After Nicolae Ceaușescu’s execution on December 25, 1989, Romania faced an important issue to deal with: What was to be done with the 44 years of a quasi-totalitarian system, based on continuous political violence?! How should Romanians relate to it? What was to be remembered and what was to be forgotten? How it should be passed on to the next generations, those who were born before, around or after the fall of the regime? The answer to these questions has varied over the 35 years since the fall of the communist regime in Romania. Numerous factors contributed to the way in which Romanians related to their communist past, how it was represented in the public space, how it was and is passed on. The actors involved have also changed and the official public memory has known many avatars. In the subsequent pages, I propose an analysis of all these aspects, resulting from my research of the last 21 years on the memory of Communism.

Visual symbols, democracy and memory: The monument of Ivan Stepanovich Konev and the memory of communism in the Czech Republic

The article discusses a conflict surrounding the removal of the Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovich Konev monument in Prague in 2020. The text begins by presenting different narratives associated with the statue and proceeds to demonstrate how the monument became entangled in a battle between opposing political factions, both in the Czech Republic and on an international scale. The aim of the article is to examine this example in the context of memory studies and to indicate that the situation in the Czech Republic arises from different cultural, social and historical contexts, especially the legacy of communism and the complex Czech Russian relations, but is in many ways similar to the situation in the United States and other places around the world lately experiencing monument struggles.

Lessons on Communism: Party Schools in Italy in the 20th Century

Abstract The Italian Communist Party created the most effective political school—and the only one in Italy—aimed at creating cadre leaders. The first schools were in Rome and Milan, and over the following decades the school system spread throughout the country, eventually counting about a hundred schools active throughout Italy until 1989. The school in Rome, which was the only one to remain open for a further four years, was the main model for the others. Called the Frattocchie School, it was a residential school in the hills of Rome and was in operation from 1944 to 1993. The students attended classes from six months to a year; they studied historical materialism and the history of Bolshevism but also experienced collective life, group identity, and the theoretical and practical values of communism. The Frattocchie model began with an initial period in which training consisted of the organization and acculturation of the working classes, starting with workers and peasants, according to a schema influenced by the Soviet schools but where the socializing bent of the Italian institutes mitigated the sectarianism and dogmatism of Moscow. The aim of the training was to build the careers of future politicians capable of embodying the ideals of a party that demanded control, preparation, and discipline. For this reason, the Italian Communist Party schools represented an original example in teaching methods and curricula, handing down the memory of communism over time. The diaries, questionnaires, and testimonies of the students who attended the Frattocchie School in its 50 years of activity are important sources and a precious heritage to understand how the Communist “faith” became a vehicle of recognition and belonging. Even today the name Frattocchie is associated with a model of party school to be imitated in order to teach methods and principles to those who want to pursue a political career.

Thinking rhizomatically about communist heritage tourism

Communist heritage tourism in central-eastern Europe is part of a stale process of decades-long transition from centrally-planned to market-oriented societies. We deploy Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the ‘rhizome’ to disrupt understandings of static hierarchies between post/communist histories, places and peoples. Experiences and memories of communism between 1944 and 1991 together with current touring performances of communist remnants are heterogeneously connected in a multidirectional network. Via the rhizome we explore this network as shifting connectivity rather than a confined and permanent construct. Thus, locals' post/communist experiences are roots and shoots which associate with other elements of the past, and with tourists' heterogeneous performances of communist places. We, therefore, explain ambivalences towards communist heritage and simultaneous dis/inheritance through tourism in these places.

Nieposłuszna biblioteka. „Biblioteka XX vek” jako instytucja kultury w Serbii okresu transformacji systemowej

The text concerns scientific publishing series “Biblioteka XX vek”, initiated in 1971 by Ivan Colović, Serbian anthropologist and publicist. During 50 years it has become an important cultural institution, which, due to its commitment to the current political and ideological affairs, gained a special role during the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia and then in terms of system transformation. In the 1990s it was an independent platform for the exchange of ideas, an ideological alternative to the nationalist regime, space for its deconstruction and criticism. “Biblioteka XX vek” takes part in animating intellectual Yugosphere − it consolidates the society of authors from former Yugoslav countries around such topics as: the memory of communism, Europeanisation of the Balkans, course and consequences of the transformation. The series paved the way for modern humanistic thought and modern scientific discourse in Serbia as well as supported these processes also in the ex-Yugoslav countries.

The memory of communism in the novel by Dan Lungu "I'm an Old Commie!"

The memory of communism in the novel by Dan Lungu "I'm an Old Commie!"

The crossed swords of memory: the image of communist Yugoslavia in the textbooks of its successor states

ABSTRACTA comparative analysis of textbooks in Yugoslavia’s successor states reveals conflicting narratives of Yugoslav communism. Two basic interpretative frameworks are: communism’s state-forming function, renewing or granting statehood; and, ‘Yugoslavism’ seen as an ideology ‘hostile’ to national aspirations. This created a ‘memory mutation,’ a shift of focus from the socio-political system to the national question, reducing the memory of communism to a memory of Yugoslavia, so the central function of the discourse on communism became to create the interpretative framework for the wars of 1990s.

The ‘final bell!’ performing everyday memories of communism in the Czech lands

ABSTRACTThis contribution explores the importance of performativity in the collective memory of communism at a Czech high school in Pacov, where teachers and students re-enacted a ‘typical’ communist day as part of an end-of-school ‘happening’ in 2006. ‘Happenings’, originally employed by alternative artistic groups to challenge the totalitarian public sphere, have increasingly been appropriated by young people to stage their own narratives of the history of communism. The analysis utilizes ethnographic and interview material to explore the impact of everyday (i.e. social), rather than political, memories of communism, as well as humorous and ironic genres (as opposed to epic or moralistic versions) on young people’s engagement with the past.

Contention, consensus, and memories of communism: Comparing Czech and Slovak memory politics in public spaces, 1993–2012

Memorial spaces can reinforce consensus or deepen conflict over the past. Memories of communism in Europe are particularly fraught mnemonic landscapes. Although they experienced the communist regime as a single country, Czechs and Slovaks now manifest very different political memories in public spaces with different levels of contention surrounding them. Through a media analysis (1993–2012) of events surrounding the 12 memorials addressing the communist past in the capital cities of Prague and Bratislava, this study generates a theory of differing levels of contention between societies with similar ‘difficult’ pasts. The Czech case is characterized by official and unofficial actors, who are cooperative or noncooperative, presenting often competing versions of the past through an individualistic, human rights-focused mnemonic frame. Slovak memory politics are less contentious, dominated by official memory actors, and interpreted through religion and nationalism. The collective memory literature lacks a way to understand when contention is more or less expected over a problematic past. I propose that when official memory actors privilege an individualistic mnemonic frame, contention becomes likely through the interpretations of unofficial memory actors, while a more collectivistic frame results in less contentious memory politics. In other words, the variation in mnemonic frame helps to explain why unofficial actors sometimes contest official representations of the past and other times leave them unchallenged.

Pamětní místa na komunismus v České republice. Dokumentace a interpretace

Autor rekapituluje dokumentační výsledky grantového projektu "Příběhy míst. Topografie paměti národa", realizovaného v Ústavu pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v. v. i., a podává nástin jejich interpretace s ohledem na paměťová studia jako svébytnou disciplínu historického bádání. Zmíněný projekt se věnuje komemoraci událostí, aktérů a obětí z období komunistického režimu (1948-1989) na území České republiky a ve svých počátcích byl inspirován rozsáhlým projektem "Vzpomínková místa na komunistické diktatury" (Erinnerungsorte an die kommunistischen Diktaturen) Spolkové nadace pro zpracování diktatury SED (Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur). V rámci projektu byla jako pamětní místa pojímána taková místa, která byla záměrně vytvořena za účelem veřejného vzpomínání, nejčastěji instalací umělecky ztvárněného objektu s historickým poselstvím (pamětní desky, sochy, památníku, kříže, nápisu a podobně), a dále taková místa, jež historické artefakty využívají jako prostředky osvěty (muzea, naučné stezky a podobně). Identifikovaná a dokumentovaná pamětní místa jsou veřejnosti prezentována dvěma způsoby: jednak prostřednictvím průběžně aktualizované databáze "Pamětní místa na komunistický režim" (viz www.pametnimista.usd.cas.cz), jednak prostřednictvím specializované mapy "Posuny paměti. Topografie soudobé paměti národa a její reflexe" (viz www.pametnimista.usd.cas.cz/kontakt). Tato webová databáze zahrnuje více než šest set pamětních míst, uspořádaných ze tří různých perspektiv - regionálně, tematicky a podle časové osy - které jsou v článku blíže osvětleny.Autor s jistou skepsí komentuje současnou konjunkturu konceptů a publikací o historické paměti v českých společenských vědách a konstatuje, že není ambicí uvedeného projektu vřazovat se do tohoto intenzivního diskurzu, nicméně pořízená dokumentace může být přirozeným zdrojem přemýšlení o kolektivní paměti vztahující se ke komunistickému období českých dějin. Z databáze plyne, že naprostá většina dochovaných pamětních míst vznikala po listopadu 1989 a že ve srovnání s jinými periodami jsou mezi nimi zdaleka nejvíce zastoupeny upomínky na padesátá léta jako období komunistických represí a obětí. V České republice však prakticky neexistují regiony paměti komunismu, způsob připomínání komunistické minulosti v jednotlivých krajích je velmi podobný, přestože konkrétní témata pamětních míst jsou v nich rozličná. Zřetelným rysem těchto pamětních míst je spontánní vznikání, podnícené většinou lokálními iniciativami, a jejich mimoběžnost se snahami o politické utváření paměti komunismu "shora". Podrobněji pak autor sleduje reflexi paměti pražského jara 1968 v pamětních místech.

The historian in prosecutor’s garb, or, The idea of legal and/or moral responsibility in historiography: The Example of Communism.

Law and historiography share several fundamental paradigms: the search for truth based on facts from the past; investigation; the presentation of “exhibits;” testimony and the evaluation of witnesses (according to the kind of jurisprudence that forms source criticism); the use of “pieces of evidence,” etc. If it is true that “legal principles cannot be transferred as-is into historical research,” that the demands in terms of evidence are not of the same nature, and that—and this is a decisive difference, but one that is not always observed, far from it, and it’s precisely this difference that will be the theme of my reflections today—the historian is not supposed to, having reconstructed the facts, regardless of how incriminating they are, pass judgement on, nor present a prosecutor’s charge against (nor plea for the acquittal of) figures from the past.With a belated but exceptionally violent spurt, the 1997 publication of The Black Book of Communism in France rekindled the long-lasting debate on the role and record of communism, mobilizing the press as a whole and every essayist in sight, with no signs that controversy is about to die down. Un pavé dans l’histoire, by Pierre Rigoulot and Ilios Yannakakis, recounts the first months of the polemic surrounding the “memory of communism” in France, positioning itself from the accusatory point of view of the book’s contributors. Several years later, the collective text Du passé faisons table rase! introduced French readers to the contrasting receptions The Black Book’s translations met in all of Europe’s countries and languages: very favourable in the East, reticent in the West—with intellectual France, as always, a clear exception, diverging from the countries who had known “real socialism,” despite the reluctance of a rearguard of prudently recycled apparatchiki who had preferred not to “stir up the mud” of the past.

Collective Memory of Communism in Croatia since 1994: Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Arts and National Narratives

Collective Memory of Communism in Croatia since 1994: Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Arts and National Narratives

The Revolutions of 1989: Causes, Meanings, Consequences

AbstractThe events of 1989 had world-shattering revolutionary consequences. They brought about a new vision of the political based upon a rediscovery of democratic participation and civic activism. The upheaval in the east, and primarily in the central, European countries, represented a series of political revolutions that led to the decisive and irreversible transformation of the existing order. When explaining 1989, one needs to focus on three major themes: the deep-seated meanings of the collapse of state socialist regimes in east central Europe, the nature of revolutions at the end of the twentieth century, and the role of critical (public) intellectuals in politics. There is no single factor that explains the collapse of Leninism: economics as much as politics, and culture as much as insoluble social tensions converged in making these regimes irretrievably obsolete. The aftermath of 1989 generated a fluidity of political commitments, allegiances and affiliations that signalled a general crisis of values and authority. There is a need for ‘social glue’ and the existing political formations have failed to imagine such ingredients for the consensus needed in order to generate constitutional patriotism. A fundamental source for reinforcing democracy in east central Europe is the synthesis between the history and the memory of communism with the purpose of achieving moral justice.

Introduction

The principal aims of the SocialEast Forum on the Art and Visual Culture of Eastern Europe are to encourage comparative research into the art history of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and to examine how a revised understanding of the achievements and circumstances of East European art impacts on global interpretations of art history. The texts in this special issue reflect the interdisciplinary approach taken, with contributions from art historians, philosophers and curators. Subjects covered range from the experimental theatre of post‐Revolutionary Russia to revisionist interpretations of Soviet monumental sculpture, new perspectives on the competing histories of conceptual art in Eastern Europe and reflections on the memory of Communism in contemporary art. The legacy of East European art is addressed in terms of its heterogeneity, disobedience to accepted canons, and the quality of much of the art produced operating subversively within the system or within alternative cultural settings.

Historical Memory and the End of Communism

In critiquing a recent book by Charity Scribner, Requiem for Communism, this article addresses fundamental questions about collective memories of Communism and the Soviet bloc: Why and how is “the past” remembered selectively? What happens when forgotten events are brought back to the fore of collective consciousness? What are the actual mechanisms of remembering? Who are the often invisible gatekeepers that direct the paths of our memories? Who are the influential rulers of memory attempting to shape our mnemonic repertoire? Scribner's book indirectly touches on these issues, though not in a fully satisfactory way, especially with regard to working-class life under Communism. Although the book does have some strong points, it too often fails to take account of how people in the region (as opposed to leftist intellectuals in the West who “knew” Communism vicariously) experienced manual labor during the Communist era and how they remember it now.

Memories of Communism in Central and East Europe: New Work by Janaszek-Ivaničková, Modrzejewski and Sznajderman, Rév, and Spiewak

Memories of Communism in Central and East Europe: New Work by Janaszek-Ivaničková, Modrzejewski and Sznajderman, Rév, and Spiewak