Memory Policy Research Articles

THE FUTURE OF THE PAST, OR POLICY OF MEMORY OF HUNGARY: BETWEEN NATIONAL AND UNIVERSAL

The memorial strategies of political actors are related to the strategic course chosen by the political factor, the desired historical image of the socio-political community, and the degree of internal diversity of memory vectors in the context of multicomponent societies. The largest wave of EU enlargement in 2004 not only included Eastern European countries in the Union but also led to radical changes in the position of ensuring pan-European unity when it came to taking into account the historical past of the new members. The EU's post-World War II memory policy framework required new commemorative practices and emphasis to prevent memorial conflicts. A condition for ensuring internal unity within the EU is the gradual weakening of internal symbolic boundaries, especially national ones. This is what has become the most difficult for Eastern European nation- states, which have found themselves in a situation of two different vectors: on the one hand, they continue to develop modern-type national doctrines when the nation defines itself within the historical lands, where national identities are being shaped on the basis of the ethnopolitical interests of the titular nations and their historical narratives; on the other hand, pan-European postmodern processes involve the recognition of universal values and common strategies. An example of an ambivalent memorial policy is Hungary, which is trying to solve various socio-political problems with the help of commemorative practices: remaining in the EU supranational space and constructing a nationally oriented memorial strategy. Finding a balance between these vectors is seen as a condition for the effective development of the national community. Thus, the purpose of this article is to determine the relationship between the new format of Hungary's national doctrine and the commemorative political technologies implemented by the state. The memory policy in Hungary is examined in the context of the changing role of commemoration in global politics and the peculiarities of the formation of the institutional environment of memory policy are identified. The author concludes that Hungary's contemporary memorial policy is developing in the format of organizing a socio-political space for dialogue between the state and related diasporas abroad.

Rupture and reconciliation: the neoliberal logics of Emmanuel Macron’s colonial memory policies

ABSTRACT First as candidate and then as President, Emmanuel Macron has elevated colonial memory policy as a key site for the performance and enactment of the dual values of rupture and reconciliation that underpin his broader programme. While this has led to significant symbolic shifts in the French state’s narrative of its colonial history, this article argues that this memory policy cannot and should not be disaggregated from his wider neoliberal project. Through a detailed contextualisation and analysis of President Macron’s interventions in the field, I contend that colonial memory policy simultaneously reflects, legitimises, and constitutes the ‘neoliberal political rationality’ his administration seeks to perpetuate. Under Macron, a limited recognition of France’s responsibilities for colonial violence has been accompanied by an effort to neutralise the political potency of the past, obscure its enduring legacies, assign authority over it to designated experts and delegitimise those who contest this logic. The article illustrates how memory policy has become a means of sublimating contemporary political demands, arising in part from historic structural injustices, into the manageable and managed process of consensus-making that is the hallmark of neoliberal governmentality.

Great Dates, or How State Policies of Remembrance Construct History

The main patron and actor in the politics of memorials is the state. It is the state that takes care of compiling a standard list of significant historical events and significant historical figures.In this regard, the following questions arise. How did the set of historical events that were to be perpetuated and propagandised look in Soviet and post-Soviet times? How and by what criteria was the selection of historical personalities and events made? What features of state policy put the emphasis on these images? How did this memorial policy express the attitude of the authorities to the role of individual and collective in history? How did they reflect the gender element? Finally, what influence did the attitude of the authorities to religion have on the process of memorialisation?Vivid examples of the official policy of memory are the gazebo in Neskuchny Gardens, which was erected in 1951 in honour of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, and the design of Borovitsky Square with the adjacent Alexander Gardens, which appeared already in the 2010s. What are the similarities and differences between these two examples of memorial policy? It is shown that they share an emphasis on solving political problems with the help of the armed forces (war or revolution), a pronounced masculinity and emphasis on great military victories. This, of course, indicates the government’s positive attitude to war, the military, and the militarisation of history. These monuments are distinguished by their respective attitudes toward history, religion, revolution, war and the role of the masses in history as well as how exactly this characterises the politics of these two different states. These examples serve to explicate Soviet and post-Soviet memorial cultures. Emphasis is placed on the archaisation of thinking and public discourse characteristic of the post-Soviet period.

Local government bodies as subjects of public policy of national memory in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to clarify the role of local self-government bodies in the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory in Ukraine.
 The source base of the research was made up of the Constitution of Ukraine, laws of Ukraine and other normative acts of higher state authorities and local self-government bodies. The methodological basis was made up of general scientific and special research methods: induction and deduction, systematization and generalization, logical and structural-functional analysis, formal-legal, etc.
 The article examines the peculiarities of the functioning of the public administration system in the field of national memory and the place of local self-government bodies in it as subjects of public policy. The regulatory and legal support for the activities of local self-government bodies, relations with state authorities, distribution of powers, decision-making mechanisms, forms of participation in political processes and public affairs management, etc. are analyzed. The current state of ensuring the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory at the local and regional levels by local self-government bodies is revealed, the main directions of this policy in the conditions of a full-scale Russian war are analyzed.
 As a result of the research work, a conclusion was made about the important role of local self-government bodies in the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory at the local and regional levels. It was determined that Ukraine operates an extensive system of public administration, which ensures the solution of important social problems and the satisfaction of urgent public needs in the field of national memory. It has been proven that socio-political processes in the field of national memory, in conditions of full-scale war and threats to territorial integrity, play a particularly important role in the establishment of Ukrainian civic identity and are an integral component of ensuring Ukraine's national security.

Fundamental principles for the formation of the newest historical policy in the context of the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war

The Russian aggression against Ukraine and its historical accompaniment (which is used for propaganda) made the question of the answer relevant. The purpose of the article is to analyze the fundamental principles for the formation of the latest historical policy in the context of the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war. To implement this task, general scientific and special historical research methods were used (content analysis, prognostic method, comparative, typological, and systemic methods. The results considered the development of historical policy in Ukraine until 2022 and the main aspects of the formation of the current situation of this field and its future prospects. It was determined that at the state level, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory forms the policy of memory. Young Ukrainian historical policy, however, has always been under the pressure of Russian influence, which directed a part of society against the decommunization and de-Sovietization of the historical past. In the future, it is important to review the existence of former Soviet institutions and their socio-cultural activities. An important stage is the official registration of decolonization processes at the legislative level. The conclusions draw attention to the importance of not only contemporary events getting into Ukrainian historical politics.

Postsocialist Statuary Politics in Romania and Bulgaria: An Ambivalent Socialist Heritage

AbstractUsing an approach situated at the intersection of cultural memory studies and (critical) heritage studies, with a focus on the ambivalent socialist heritage of socialist statues and monuments and their changing role in postsocialist public spaces, this article engages with the postcommunist strategies of reckoning with the past in Romania and Bulgaria in the period 1990–2020. Comparing the kinds of monumental memory of communism that were established in these countries, the author discusses how each dealt with their ambivalent socialist heritage through a public memory policy comprising three combined strategies: removal; preservation; and the replacement of communist heroes with anticommunist counter-monuments. The author concludes that stances toward the socialist heritage manifest various tensions in terms of the types of statues that were removed or, alternately, allowed to remain; of the opposition between local and national decisions as well as between the official approach and citizens’ perspectives; and, finally, of aesthetic versus political criteria.

Mnemonic diplomacy in Russian-Serbian relations: The limits of the possible

The Balkan region has traditionally been of particular importance for Russia, and currently Serbia remains one of the few European countries potentially exposed, due to ideological affinity, to the influence of Russia’s soft power. Memory policy is an important tool in creating and maintaining this affinity because it enables formulation of unifying historical narratives and shared vision of the key events in the common history, thereby providing underpinning for assessments of current developments and for creating an image of the desired future. However, it has its limits and boundaries, and this paper aims at assessing the strength of the Russian-Serbian mnemonic union. The research builds on the concept of ‘mnemonic diplomacy’, which refers to a set of techniques and methods for the affirmation, coordination and dissemination of certain historical narratives designed to support the state’s foreign policy activities. The author argues that the Russian-Serbian memory alliance is based primarily on common assessments of the events of World War II. The paper examines the key stages, internal and external drivers of this mnemonic union development, as well as identifies contradictions and conflicts inherent to this process. The author emphasizes that within the framework of the Russian-Serbian memory alliance both parties have always pursued their own goals. For instance, Serbia sought to use it to increase its weight in the Balkan and, more broadly, European politics, as well as to strengthen relations with its traditional geopolitical ally. For Russia, this mnemonic alliance acquired particular significance when the country’s leaders set a course for transforming the post-Cold War world order. However, it was exactly this new turn of Russia’s foreign policy whose most visible manifestation was the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine that dramatically complicated Serbia’s position, including that in the field of memory politics. At the same time it has revealed the limits of the Russian-Serbian mnemonic union. The author concludes that the effectiveness of mnemonic diplomacy and, more broadly, the very possibility of forming and maintaining mnemonic alliances, ultimately depend on a combination of objective factors, including close economic ties and mutual geopolitical interest. Pushed outside this comfort zone, complementary historical narratives built solely on the appeal to the common heritage quickly lose their power of attraction.

Introduction to the thematic section ‘current Hungarian memory policies in a broader context’

Introduction to the thematic section ‘current Hungarian memory policies in a broader context’

Rhythms of the past: the first anniversaries of the Great Patriotic War in Soviet memory politics (1945-1965)

The article describes the first anniversaries of the events of the Great Patriotic War (first of all, Victory Day) from the point of view of the Soviet policy of memory, which is interpreted by the authors as part of a symbolic policy representing the production and maintenance of certain social ideas about the past in order to achieve the stability of the ruling political regime. Special emphasis is placed on the comparative analysis of official programs of events related to the Victory Day in 1945-1965, the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1961), the first "round" anniversaries of the Battle of Moscow, the Stalingrad and Kursk battles, taking into account ideological, mobilization, status, geopolitical, organizational factors. Based on a significant number of archival and published sources, it is shown how, as we move away from military events for 10-20 years, the instrumental role of anniversaries of key events of the Great Patriotic War has increased, aimed at solving not only domestic political, but also foreign policy tasks. By the mid-1960s, such anniversaries were finally fixed in the memorial calendar and served to consolidate and mobilize Soviet society, contributed to the concentration of symbolic resources at the central and in some cases regional authorities (for example, the case of Stalingrad/Volgograd), and were also used to strengthen the positive image of the USSR abroad.

MRAM-Based Cache System Design and Policy Optimization for RISC-V Multi-Core CPUs

On-chip cache, being the crucial constituent of central processing unit (CPU), accounts for a pivotal portion of the system’s overall power consumption. The typical SRAM-based cache is vulnerable to high static leakage power consumption, while multiple challenges encountered in scaling up its capacity. In the paper, magnetic random-access-memory (MRAM) cache is considered as a promising candidate in RISC-V CPU systems. After analyzing the performances of single-core, dual-core, quad-core, and octa-core systems, a quad-core RISC-V based CPU system with a two- level hierarchical cache structure is designed, in which Spin-Orbit Transfer (SOT)-MRAM is adopted as the L1 private cache and Spin-Transfer Torque (STT)-MRAM as the L2 shared cache. Details on the microarchitecture of the multi-core CPU design are provided. Energy evaluation shows that this quad-core cache system can achieve 66.4% leakage power saving and 34.5% total power saving compared to SRAM. For high efficiency of data-exchange in the novel MRAM CPU systems, three types of characteristics optimizing methods are proposed. An optimized cache-coherency protocol incorporating non-inclusive policy is proposed. The quad-core system is updated by adding the coherence control module and a directory in the design scheme. The simulation results on multiple dimensions show that the policy of the hybrid MRAM memory is a promising candidate for multi-core RISC-V system, with the benefits of low-power consumption and high hit rate. Finally, the peripheral circuitry and manufacturing cost for the implementation of the MRAM cache is discussed in the paper.

Victory of Life over Death. Collection of Nikolay Khorikov, a Photojournalist of the Civil War and Famine in the Volga Region

The present article examines the works of the Samara photographer Nikolay Khorikov, who made a significant contribution into preserving the history of such a large-scale disaster as the famine that befell the Samara province during the Civil War. The main emphasis is made not on building a policy of memory around the inhuman suffering endured by the people, but on the experience of overcoming this greatest humanitarian catastrophe. The author presents the main milestones in the life of N.S. Khorikov, analyzes visual sources — a series of photos taken by the photographer in the 1930s for publication in the central media.

Bibliographic Index "History of Ukraine": Reflection of the National Liberation Movement, Unification and «Liberation» of Ukrainian Lands in the 20–50-s of the 20-th century

The purpose of the study is to find out the accordance the titles of the structure parts of the scientific auxiliary bibliographic index (annual edition) «History of Ukraine» for the years 2000–2019, the content of the descriptions of the works presented in it, es well of the historiography, and legislation of Ukraine on the questions of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people, reunification and liberation of Ukrainian lands in the 20s–50s of the XX century. Research methodology: the principles of historicism, objectivity, systematics and comprehensiveness were applied, as well as – general methods of scientific research – analysis, synthesis, comparison. Scientific novelty: for the first time, an attempt was made to show the inconsistency of the titles of separate subsections and rubrics in the content of the bibliographic index «History of Ukraine» for the years 2000–2019 with the titles of the descriptions of the researches which presented in it. Conclusions. The structure of the bibliographic index «History of Ukraine» does not have a subsection or rubric on the history of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 20th century, while in the manual presents many descriptions of researches on this topic. Simultaneously, the bibliographic edition contains structural parts, the titles of which reflect Soviet historiography and propaganda due to the use the words-ideologemes: «liberation» and «reunification» which had already been refuted by modern researchers as the «expulsion» and «unification» or «joining». Therefore, bibliographers should take into account he dominant titles of the submitted descriptions of works, to annotate them and study the historiography of the issues in detail. Such state of the leading bibliographic edition is also the result of the inconsistent policy of national memory on these topics, the lack of appropriate legislation for a long time, and now its imperfection. Not a single law of Ukraine, which deals with the issue of r national liberation struggle in the 20th century, contains a definition of this term. Key words: bibliographic index «History of Ukraine», content structure, topics, national liberation movement, expulsion, unification of Ukrainian lands, law of Ukraine.

REVIEW OF THE BOOK «THE OFFICIAL DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN POLICY OF MEMORY OF THE SOVIET PAST: STRATEGIES OF INTERPRETATION, ACTORS, COMMEMORATIVE PRACTICES». COLLECTIVE MONOGRAPH / UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF DOCTOR OF HISTORICAL SCIENCES, PROFESSOR O.F. RUSAKOVA. YEKATERINBURG, PUBLISHING HOUSE «DISCOURSE-PI», 2022, 370 P

The article analyzes a recently published book by a team of Ural political scientists and historians devoted to the study of the Russian policy of memory of the Soviet past. An attempt is made not only to characterize the structure of the book, but also to point out the social significance of this publication. The author of the article came to the conclusion that the point of view of the authors of the monograph deserves attention, which boils down to the fact that over the past three decades in the Russian official discourse not only alternative interpretations and interpretations of the October Revolution, the image of Stalin, the price of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, the formation and collapse of the USSR, etc., but also formed two official memory policies about the Soviet past. To replace the neoliberal discourse that dominated the Russian official memory policy of Russia in the 1990s - the first half of the 2000s, a new model of memory policy has been formed in the country, which is based on a conceptual break with the ideology of neoliberalism and is based on the values of the policy of reasonable conservatism.

День Победы как платформа реализации политики памяти и глобального позиционирования России в мире в комплексной стратегии российского национального брендинга

The article is devoted to the study of Victory Day Parade as a historical and promising platform initiated by Russia for the consolidation of the Russian people on the base of the implementation of memory policy and combating falsification of history. The author investigates the phenomenon of memory policy as an active strategy for consolidating significant historical events in the mass consciousness of the population and external target audiences, including through commemorative practices in order to realize Russia's national interests in domestic and foreign policy. The article considers the role of the Victory Day Parade as a symbolic message to external audiences about the historical and promising geopolitical role of Russia against the background of unprecedented information pressure from the West and a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. The author studies the effectiveness and limitations of such important promotional movements as the Immortal Regiment (Bessmertniy Polk) and the St. George Ribbon (Georgievskaya Lentochka) as significant soft power tools in the strategy of Russian national branding both within the country and abroad. The article analyzes the Victory Day Parade as an instrument in the comprehensive strategy of national branding of the Russian Federation based on the innovative competencies of the military-industrial complex. The author concludes that in the structure of the Russian national brand there is the brand in the field of defense industry that can play the role of both the bonds of Russian society and the intensification of the pro-Russian principle abroad, as well as restraint and counterbalance in the international arena.

Polityka pamięci na polsko-ukraińskim pograniczu kulturowym na przykładzie nazewnictwa ulic trzech miast Galicji Wschodniej

In this article the authors have attempted to juxtapose two historical periods in the context of the variability of street naming in the cities of Eastern Galicia, which is a cultural borderland. The analysis includes cities – Boryslav, Kolomyia and Drohobych, during the Polish (1919-1939) and Ukrainian (from 1991) administrations. The research results are the findings of comparative analyses of the studied towns’ urbanonymy, with a description of them, supplemented by cartographic studies. On the basis of these, it was concluded that both the former Polish and the current Ukrainian policy of memory often use the same mechanisms of ideological space appropriation, forming and deepening the historical narrative of a given nation.

The battle on the river Somme and the historical politics in Britain

The article focuses on the commemorative experience of Britain in the context of a systematic study of the policy of memory at the present stage of the country's development. The main purpose of the study is to analyse the forms and ways of representing the Battle of the Somme in modern Britain as a historical reality, highlighting the main features of the British experience of preserving the memory of this event and transmitting it for a mass audience. The author proposes an attempt to trace the development of ideas in scientific and popular science materials concerning the event as a collective trauma, the memory of which has been reflected in British historiography since its formation in 1916. The collective memory of the events of the First World War in Britain is often ambiguous and debatable, especially the Battle of the Somme, which changed people's perception of armed conflicts. As part of the study of the British politics of memory, it was revealed that the "historical narrative" of the battle is to glorify the exploits of the expeditionary forces on the Western Front and at the same time criticise the commanders of the armed forces responsible for massive combat losses.

Reflection of Yakutia History in Siberian Lights Journal in 1920—1980

The article traces the dynamics of representations of the historical past of Yakutia in the publications of the monthly literary, artistic and socio-political magazine “Siberian Lights”. This issue is considered in the context of the processes of constructing the Soviet policy of memory throughout the entire period of the existence of the USSR. The relevance of the study is due to the increased attention to the specifics of historical knowledge presented in the public space, to its structures, interpretations and use for political and ideological purposes in the past and present. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that until now the history of journal representations of the past of Yakutia in the context of state policy has not become the subject of independent scientific research. The study made it possible to identify the contexts that determined the specifics of creating journal representations of the history of Yakutia. The author established and characterized five stages of this representation. It is shown how the meanings and techniques of the politics of memory that were behind the approaches to the description and characteristics of the past of Yakutia changed. It is proved that the differences between approaches to representations were determined by the tendencies of strengthening and weakening the political and ideological control of the state in the field of memory politics and nation building.

De-Commemoration as a Factor of Collective Memory Formation in South America

The article focuses on de-commemoration, i.e. the elimination of monuments and other objects with historical meaning, in South American countries. The goal is to analyse the examples of these processes found in different countries of the region, using a new typology of this yet insufficiently studied phenomenon, proposed by sociologists Tracy Adams and Yinon Guttel-Klein. There are examples of de-commemoration linked to democratization of socio-political and, consequently, cultural space in the region, as well as the revision of monumental heritage in the context of changing perceptions of society and some of its influential segments of the country's past or their transition from verbal rejection of certain objects to destructive actions. The novelty of the study lies in the use of the new typology, originally applied to the analysis of the Israeli experience, in the study of memorial objects in South America and the analysis of diverse memorial units and country-specific features of the processes of de-commemoration, namely desecration and reframing, primarily in Paraguay and Colombia. One of the main conclusions of the study is the possibility of de-commemoration in the studied region in relation to objects belonging to chronologically and essentially different historical periods and phenomena. The author also reveals the multifunctionality of de-commemoration. Finally, it has been found that the interest of the state in the implementation of memory policy in general and de-commemoration in particular often plays a decisive role in the implementation of projects in this sphere.

Commemoration of the 1905 Revolution in the Industrial City. The Case of Łódź

The article discusses the current practices of commemorating the 1905 revolution in Łódź. The changes taking place in the city’s memory policy are conditioned both by the loss of memory of the events from a century ago and by changing political factors in the post-transformation period. The city is a paradigmatic example of a post-industrial city in Central and Eastern Europe facing an identity crisis. Narratives formulated ‘from above’ compete with those created ‘from below’. While the former are based on the construction of a utopian, capitalist city of success, the latter claim the history of the people of Łódź. Revitalising the memory of the Revolution of 1905 plays a key role in these negotiations, contributing to a revision of the post-transformation amnesia about the city’s working-class past.

Inconveniences of Memory. The Monument to the Soviet Army and Georgi Dimitrov’s Mausoleum in Sofia after 1989

The paper discusses the transformations of memory caused by the preservation, removal or redefinition of memorials. These transformations indicate the competition between political and ideological views in Bulgarian society after 1989. Two cases are analysed: the deconstruction of Georgi Dimitrov’s already-empty mausoleum in 1999 and the Monument to the Soviet Army, still standing in Sofia. Both instances are significant indicators of power constellations, which, in the second case, also have a precise foreign policy dimension (relations with Russia). The periodically activated debates, especially concerning the Monument to the Soviet Army, indicate the absence of a coherent memory policy and general ambiguous attitudes in Bulgarian society towards the communist past.