A Trial in Absentia Purifying National Historical Narratives in Russia
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Date
2016
Authors
Bertelsen, Olga
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Journal ISSN
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Abstract
This study explores contemporary Russian memory politics, and analyzes the ideological
underpinnings of the 2011 Moscow court verdict that criminalized a Ukrainian scholarly
publication, accusing it of inciting ethnic, racial, national, social, and religious hatred. This
accusation is examined in the context of Russia’s attempts to control the official historical
narrative. Special attention is paid to the role of Russian cultural and democratic civic
institutions, such as the Moscow library of Ukrainian literature and Memorial, in the microhistory
of this publication. Deconstructing the judicial reaction of Russian lawmakers toward
the Ukrainian publication, the study analyzes the Russian political elite’s attitudes toward
the “Ukrainian” historical interpretations of Stalin’s terror and other aspects of common
Soviet history, and demonstrates the interconnectedness of the preceding Soviet and modern
Russian methods of control over education, history, and culture. Language and legislation play
an important role in Russian memory politics that shape the popular historical imagination
and camouflage the authoritarian methods of governing in Russia. The case of the Ukrainian
publication is contextualized by examining the cult of chekism and the discursive significance
of anti-Ukrainianism, salient elements in Russian memory politics that have transcended
national borders.
Description
Keywords
Russia, Ukraine, memory politics, extremism, ckekists, ideological subversion
Citation
Bertelsen Olga. A Trial in Absentia Purifying National Historical Narratives in Russia : [electronic resource]/ Olga Bertelsen // Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal. - 2016. - No. 3. - P. 57-87.