Lars Karl, Igor Polianski (Ed.)
Geschichtspolitik und Erinnerungskultur im neuen Russland
1. Edition 2009
290 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-691-7
V&R unipress
Formen der Erinnerung -
plus S&H
Book
Since the fall of communism and the end of the Soviet Union, public debates about the country's historical legacy have become a current topic in the political life of Russia. The state gradually lost its dominant ideological position and ability to redefine its past and has become only one of many actors in a very heterogeneous landscape of memorialization. Ongoing discussions question formerly unquestionable dogmas, and a collective memory - formed by the canon of Soviet historiography coupled with an officially ritualized remembrance culture - has lost its uniformity and has become more pluralistic.
This volume is a first attempt to analyze selected topics of politics of history and important aspects of remembrance culture in contemporary Russia, and brings them together in a comparative perspective. The interdisciplinary approach can be regarded as an efficient way to explain the function of "history" in the Russian Federation as well as to introduce new theories and methods to an important field of research.
