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This essay adds to previous research of Putinism an investigation of the political thought and foreign outlooks of Russia's Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergei Naryshkin, with a focus on their statements between 2006 to 2020. The paper outlines Patrushev's and Naryshkin's thoughts regarding the United States, Ukraine, and the idea of multipolarity/polycentrism. We then introduce Patrushev's critique of liberal values and color revolutions, and Naryshkin's statements on the memory of World War II and Western institutions. The salience of these altogether seven topics is interpreted with reference to three classical topoi in Russian political thought: the Slavophile vs. Westerners controversy, the single-stream theory, and the civilizational paradigm. Our conclusions inform the ongoing debate on whether to conceptualize Putinism as either an ideology or a mentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural heritage is an integral part of a people's identity, both for future generations and for preservation of historical memory and cultural development. In the face of the aggression of the Russian Federation, preservation of Ukraine's cultural heritage requires the joint efforts of national and international organisations, scientists and cultural experts. The paper compares the loss and damage brought about by Russia's war on Ukraine since 2014 to the loss and damage inflicted by Germany during World War II. Both aggressors have inflicted serious damage with large-scale theft and looting of cultural values on the territory of Ukraine, destroying architectural monuments, museums and libraries, with the aim of erasing national awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a broad comparative summary of all the cases addressed in the Special Issue ‘Hot and cold ethnicities in post-Soviet space’. The aim of the summary is to pinpoint the major features that have an impact on the ethnic temperatures in the social settings studied. This paper argues that ethnic, national, civic and imperial groups are representatives of the same type (territorial groups) and the collective identity formation which for all of them is principally similar. As the case studies indicate historical narratives and collective memory are invariably used for the formation of the emotional attachment to collective identity. The case studies provide support to an understanding that any territorial group is a project rather than a thing and resulting groupness is a happening which needs continuous enactment to sustain its state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Marshrutka minibuses are in charge of providing daily transport services for millions of passengers in the post-Soviet space. In doing so, they shape the perception of public sphere and contribute to the production of community. In this sense, the interior design of marshrutka minibuses contribute to a number of publicly negotiated discourse formations on collective identity patterns, such as nationhood, memory culture, as well as folkloristic values. Drawing on empirical evidence from Kyrgyzstan and Russia, we try to deconstruct multiple layers of marshrutka signposts. In their heterogeneity and contrariness, the marshrutka semiotics unveil the minibuses as a place of encounter and conflict, where fluid social institutions are consistently calling for negotiation. Triggered by the question how cultural trajectories of identity are performed, we will choose a number of marshrutka messages like official licenses, advertisements or patriotic proverbs and analyse them in the local setting of application. The expected insight of this paper is twofold: firstly, we contextualise societal struggles, which are reproduced in everyday marshrutka encounter and secondly, we contribute to a better understanding of the mobility practice as such, pointing to general deficits in the broader marshrutka enterprise, read out from visualised statements in the social space of marshrutka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the popular response to Soviet myths in the post-Soviet period through the lens of the complicated treatment of Zoia Kosmodem'ianskaia. As arguably the most famous Soviet World War II martyr, Kosmodem'ianskaia's image splintered after glasnost' and has been located at the nexus of debate in various media since 1991. This paper poses questions about the fracturing of national memory when a nation has undergone upheaval: about the stability of heroes, about citizens' responses to them, and about heroes' transformation in the new regime. Catriona Kelly has demonstrated that the treatment of a national hero can illuminate the circumstances that produced the hero and the cultural climate of subsequent decades. Building on her work, this article asks "Why and how has the image of Kosmodem'ianskaia remained relevant while other Soviet heroes have been neglected since 1991?" This article posits that Kosmodem'ianskaia's continued significance lies above all in the flexibility of her image and the transitional aspects of her body. Her depictions in various contexts represent prominent responses to the authoritarian regime which gave birth to both Kosmodem'ianskaia and her legacy. The variety of her images demonstrates the continued relevance of this figure two decades after the collapse of the USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its implications for the study of international relations. It highlights the Eurocentric bias in the field and the lack of understanding of Eastern European experiences. The war has exposed divisions between offensive realists and pacifists, both of whom fail to recognize Ukraine's agency. However, it has also empowered Central and East European states to assert their political independence and challenge Russia's denial of Ukraine's sovereignty. The article explores Ukraine's historical experience as a passive player in international relations and the neglect of Russian imperialism in postcolonial studies. It argues that the war has revealed the difficulty of acknowledging Ukraine's distinct perspective and the need to address Russia's historical memory. The text also discusses Russia's imperialistic ambitions and the need for a comprehensive program to confront its repressive past. It calls for a decolonization of the study of war and international relations, emphasizing the importance of considering the perspectives and agency of smaller states. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of empathy and understanding for those affected by the conflict. [Extracted from the article]

In the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis, a wave of scholarship resorted to realism and its core assumptions in an attempt to explain Russia's assertiveness. This article challenges these predominant accounts by contending that the co-constitutive link between identity and foreign policy deserves far greater attention to understand Russia's international actions. To this end, it examines the evolution of an underexplored yet central subset of Russia's foreign policy in the post-Soviet space, namely its cultural diplomacy. Concretely, it applies a poststructuralist research design to a textual selection including official documents and Presidential declarations from 2008–2018, semi-structured interviews with policy-makers, cultural operators and experts, and participant observation. The article finds that, between 2008 and 2012, three competing articulations of identity were proposed in Russia's cultural diplomacy, targeting Russian (Russkiy) ethnicity, the country's multi-ethnicity, and its collective memory. However, after the 2012 presidential elections, these were replaced by a new articulation reproducing Russia's identity through a) radicalization of cultural differences (with the West/the EU) and b) negation of alternative identities (within Russia and the post-Soviet space). Amidst increased political contestation with the 2011–12 Russian protests, this hegemonic intervention from the state-level sought to (re-)produce this identity through an antagonistic delimitation of the social and secure the regime's survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, the draft of the law on patriotic education was submitted to the State Duma. The document clearly signaled that Russian authorities were starting to prepare for long-term resistance to external threats, both military and cultural. This development follows the adoption of five decrees with a similar focus. Exploring this "patriotic turn," our research will focus on how power shapes collective memory and how the Russian patriotic campaign is perceived elsewhere in the post-Soviet space, namely in Kazakhstan. In this way, we want to shed new light on the nexus between historical memory, anti-Western resistance, and the foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores and compares the visual images used by Channel One (Ch1), Russia's biggest state-aligned television broadcaster, to justify Russia's intervention in two major geopolitical conflicts in recent history: the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and Syria's civil war. The data reveal that while Ch1's projection of Ukrainian conflict is anchored in compassion to the Eastern Ukraine population speaking the Russian language, the Syrian war is framed to fuel the feeling of national pride by focusing on the Russian greatness as a political and military superpower. This research, thus, extends the theoretical understanding of media representation of war, especially how the changing political context impacts which identities are represented and made potent through different emotional appeals. The article conceptualises visual images as affective anchors that can be used to reactivate collective memory and dominant discourses and construct emotional relationships between the audience and mediated events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently there has been a renewed focus on analyzing post-communist memory, including the revitalization of debate on contemporary public perceptions of Josef Stalin. How do Russians and Georgians judge Stalin in the post-Soviet present? What individual characteristics are the best indicators of how someone evaluates Stalin? Scholars have offered various insights into the apparent resurgence of appreciation for the late Soviet leader, including nostalgia for the Soviet period, socio-spatial variables, and political attitudes, but no comparative research on attitudes and their explanations has been attempted. Using nationally representative survey data, this study compares the perceptions of Stalin in contemporary Russia and contrasts it with how people view the Soviet dictator in Georgia, his home country. We conclude that Stalin is alive in the minds of many, both in Georgia and Russia, although for different reasons. If in Georgia the admiration of Stalin is largely explained by socio-demographic and socio-spatial variables, in Russia it is more closely related to ideological and political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and the Kaliningrad State Technical University have come to exert considerable influence over debates surrounding historical memory and identity in the Kaliningrad region. Under the direct control of the Russian Federation, the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad is surrounded by member states of the European Union. While the region’s universities have helped to strengthen links between Kaliningrad and institutions across the European Union, the way the students and staff interact with the Russian state reflects cultural tensions in Kaliningrad society. A detailed examination of the history and identity of Kaliningrad’s universities can therefore provide deeper insights into the region’s balancing act between Europe and Russia as well as the ways in which universities can influence local debates over history and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay critically examines the current duality of Russian-Ukrainian intercultural relations and explores the subject of politics of active and selective memory as the claimed root of current controversies and military tensions. Through rhetorical analysis of historical and contemporary national narratives, it demonstrates how culturally defining experience of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War is remembered, rethought, and reused by respective parties to reinvent the Self and the Br/Other, as well as rethink ones positionality on the world arena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes the evolution of nostalgic sentiment in Russia over the past 25 years. Unlike in the 1990s, the nostalgic perception of the Soviet past in the 2000s was transformed under the influence of a new government ideology. Leonid Parfenov’s projectNamedniin both its forms – a television program and a book anthology – is an example of reflexive nostalgia for the Soviet period of 1946–1991. Reflexive nostalgia as expressed by liberal intellectuals presumes a freedom of interpretation. Thus,Namednidoes not reflect the official “patriotic” discourse. The article discusses the specifics of the television and book versions, the significance of visual and literary imagery, and the relationship between history and historical memory. BecauseNamedniexhibits signs of an autobiographical text, the article concludes that memory takes a higher priority than historical science in Parfenov’s project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the formation of nostalgic sentiment in contemporary Russia. Nostalgic emotions which idealize the Soviet experience are typical of Russian society today. To a great extent, they are a natural consequence of the forming of historical memories concerning the recent past. However, to a greater extent, they must be viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon formed in the context of the social catastrophe that accompanied the collapse of the USSR. Nostalgia is amplified by political practices. Nostalgic sentiment is also sustained and cultivated by the mass media, which responds both to consumer demand and to political trends. Nostalgia for what was lost in the aftermath of a social catastrophe transforms a psychological reaction, typical of the older generation, into a nostalgia of catastrophes. It is the particular condition of a society that has lived through complicated historical periods, when dramatic changes resulted in the loss of the behavioural models and values which used to define people’s lives. The nostalgic mindset facilitates the mythologization of certain intervals of Soviet history as a “golden age”, one that is not completely lost. The period of the 1950s to 1970s is particularly actively mythologized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of why some Russian citizens look upon Josef Stalin respectfully today. Based upon the results of an original nationwide survey conducted by the Levada Analytical Center and supplemented by seventy field interviews, this article posits that a considerable number of Russians view Stalin respectfully on account of three factors. First, Stalin remains a somewhat revered historical figure in part because most Russians harbour no feelings of shame about the Soviet past. Additionally, the tendency of some to rationalize Stalin's main policies of the 1930s, by claiming that there was no other way for the USSR to industrialize than according to the course adhered to by Stalin, helps to safeguard the former General Secretary's reputation. That said, the primary reason why some Russians view Stalin respectfully is due to the pervasiveness of nostalgia for the Soviet period, a widespread phenomenon which serves to bolster Stalin's image as a leader whose contributions led to the realization of great achievements. This article contends that feelings of respect for Stalin are mainly grounded in how Russians evaluate the present ordering of society in comparison to the Soviet past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite real problems associated with reconstructing the frontline experience of Russian soldiers during World War I, a study of surviving documents reveals an involuntary modernization among the troops that prepared soldiers for careers in the Red Army and the political police and bred hostility toward the rural population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most widely available medium in post-Soviet Russia, television has become central to both Russian collective memory and the formation of its national identity. This article examines Vladimir Bortko's 2005 television adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Particular attention is given to the series's treatment of political and economic critiques of the Soviet system in order to understand how these subjects are marshaled to downplay the political repression and economic centralization in Russia following the rise to power of Vladimir Putin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I offer a brief overview of the role of Soviet and post-Soviet national historical narratives in the ethnic conflicts in the South Caucasus, including possible strategies of narrative transformation towards reconciliation. I suggest that successful narrative transformations require a process of identifying and reflecting upon the existing patterns of collective memory in the historical narratives that feed the confrontational attitudes of the warring historiographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Georgian historical master-narrative was formed at the end of the nineteenth century, in the era of the birth of Georgian nationalism. In confrontation with Russian imperial policy, Georgian history was transformed into the reconstruction and revival of Georgian ethnic identity. After imposition of Soviet rule in 1921, the Georgian master-narrative was readjusted according to the Marxist methodological framework, although it successfully confronted the official Soviet narrative. In the period of “perestroika” a general process of the revival of national identity was accompanied by growing interest in national history, and the Georgian master-narrative became more ethnocentric. The situation was aggravated by the conflicts of the early 1990s in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It took some time to realize the importance of forming the feeling of national belonging regardless of ethnic, cultural or religious identity. At the end of the 1990s, reconfiguration of historical narratives and collective memories began in the history textbooks for secondary educational institutions. Nevertheless, the trajectory of historical narratives is not simple and the problem of inclusion of ethnic minorities in the history of Georgia still remains a significant issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the role of photography in creating, preserving and transforming memory of state violence? The events surrounding the 'Novocherkassk massacre', the brutal suppression of a workers' demonstration in the Russian town of Novocherkassk in 1962, have been shrouded in secrecy until the fall of the USSR. Subsequent attempts by local activists to investigate the state's crimes and commemorate the victims have been only partially successful. In the meantime, numerous snapshots preserved in family archives reference the events of 1962, and create frameworks for remembering that can be actualized during a conversation over the family album. The nature of the photographic 'evidence', however, is such that it enables not only remembering and identification, but also a partial reinvention of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the interrelationship between a homeland and its diasporic communities from the point of view of the homeland. In particular, it examines the policies adopted by Russia and Israel toward the same group; that is, the Russian-speaking Jews who have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The article demonstrates how the construction of this migrant population as diasporic community of the 'homeland' gives rise to unexpected challenges to the symbolic definition of the 'nation.' These challenges add a new perspective in this regard, rendering tenuous the claim of the nation to primordiality, constancy, and coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a historical phenomenological approach to emotionally charged political events like the Russian Civil War can enrich understanding by adding the study of myths and images, as preserved in collective and individual historical memory, to attempts to reconstruct the facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the reasons for the insignificant role that crimes committed during communist rule play in contemporary Russia. It argues that attitudes toward the Soviet past are a matter of politics and values much more than of knowledge. While the official historical memory and master narrative are not inclined to give an objective assessment of the Soviet period, the Russian public at large also does not want to make Soviet crimes a focal point in collective remembrance. Unwillingness to admit a society's own responsibility inevitably leads to its solidarity with the undemocratic power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how Russians see their historical past and how they interpret their own and others' actions based on the analysis of current Russian historical discourse, particularly that of Joseph Stalin. It attempts to demonstrate that the forms in which Russia is trying to come into terms with its Soviet past are crucially conditioned by images that stemmed from the collective memory of the people.