Julie Fedor | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)
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Papers by Julie Fedor
This article examines conspiracy theories about the history of the Cold War as presented in post-... more This article examines conspiracy theories about the history of the Cold War as presented in post-Soviet memoirs and other writings produced by former KGB officers. It focuses in particular on conspiracy theories positing an ongoing Western plot to destroy and humiliate Russia. The article explores the connections which these texts draw between national identity, morality, memory, and state security.
This collection of articles focuses on the Russian information war campaign that has accompanied ... more This collection of articles focuses on the Russian information war campaign that has accompanied and fueled the war in Ukraine. Of course, neither side has a monopoly on the use of propaganda and disinformation, and the latter are always present in any war. 2 But we have chosen to focus here on the Russian state media machine, as a phenomenon that not only looms especially large over the events of the past year but is also bound to continue to play a major role in shaping future developments in the region and beyond.
This essay explores the narratives of martyrdom connected to the history and memory of twentieth-... more This essay explores the narratives of martyrdom connected to the history and memory of twentieth-century violence in Eastern Europe. The archetypal figure of the martyr offers a powerful vehicle for remembering the dead, and a potent tool for making and remaking identity, and especially for cultivating national myths. The language and imagery of martyrdom has long been a central part of the memory cultures of Eastern Europe, but in recent decades in particular it has undergone a striking revival. Images of martyrdom have proliferated especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2014, where they are being used to underpin territorial claims, calls for retribution, and new national myths. In this article, we examine a range of manifestations of this mode of remembering in Soviet and post-Soviet space. Our focus is on the distinctive forms which these martyrdom narratives take, and the ways in which these in turn are used to frame and shape identities.
In recent years, one subgroup of the victims of Soviet state terror has been coming into ever-sha... more In recent years, one subgroup of the victims of Soviet state terror has been coming into ever-sharper focus: the so-called 'Russian new martyrs and confessors of the twentieth century', that is, the clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church who suffered as a result of state repressions during the Soviet period. This article explores the meaning-making practices surrounding the new martyrs through a discussion of the new symbolic language that is being developed in order to narrate and represent these events. Its focus is on the iconography produced and endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and the sometimes paradoxical ways in which it is being used to undergird a model of the correct Orthodox Christian attitude of unquestioning loyalty to the state. The article looks in particular at the ways in which the ambiguities of Russia's transition and the hybrid nature of the post-Soviet Russian state are reflected and played out in the new symbolic language and forms being created to represent and remember the new martyrs and, by extension, to shape a master narrative of the Soviet past and the post-Soviet transition aimed at declaring where Russian identity begins and ends.
This article examines conspiracy theories about the history of the Cold War as presented in post-... more This article examines conspiracy theories about the history of the Cold War as presented in post-Soviet memoirs and other writings produced by former KGB officers. It focuses in particular on conspiracy theories positing an ongoing Western plot to destroy and humiliate Russia. The article explores the connections which these texts draw between national identity, morality, memory, and state security.
This collection of articles focuses on the Russian information war campaign that has accompanied ... more This collection of articles focuses on the Russian information war campaign that has accompanied and fueled the war in Ukraine. Of course, neither side has a monopoly on the use of propaganda and disinformation, and the latter are always present in any war. 2 But we have chosen to focus here on the Russian state media machine, as a phenomenon that not only looms especially large over the events of the past year but is also bound to continue to play a major role in shaping future developments in the region and beyond.
This essay explores the narratives of martyrdom connected to the history and memory of twentieth-... more This essay explores the narratives of martyrdom connected to the history and memory of twentieth-century violence in Eastern Europe. The archetypal figure of the martyr offers a powerful vehicle for remembering the dead, and a potent tool for making and remaking identity, and especially for cultivating national myths. The language and imagery of martyrdom has long been a central part of the memory cultures of Eastern Europe, but in recent decades in particular it has undergone a striking revival. Images of martyrdom have proliferated especially since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2014, where they are being used to underpin territorial claims, calls for retribution, and new national myths. In this article, we examine a range of manifestations of this mode of remembering in Soviet and post-Soviet space. Our focus is on the distinctive forms which these martyrdom narratives take, and the ways in which these in turn are used to frame and shape identities.
In recent years, one subgroup of the victims of Soviet state terror has been coming into ever-sha... more In recent years, one subgroup of the victims of Soviet state terror has been coming into ever-sharper focus: the so-called 'Russian new martyrs and confessors of the twentieth century', that is, the clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church who suffered as a result of state repressions during the Soviet period. This article explores the meaning-making practices surrounding the new martyrs through a discussion of the new symbolic language that is being developed in order to narrate and represent these events. Its focus is on the iconography produced and endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and the sometimes paradoxical ways in which it is being used to undergird a model of the correct Orthodox Christian attitude of unquestioning loyalty to the state. The article looks in particular at the ways in which the ambiguities of Russia's transition and the hybrid nature of the post-Soviet Russian state are reflected and played out in the new symbolic language and forms being created to represent and remember the new martyrs and, by extension, to shape a master narrative of the Soviet past and the post-Soviet transition aimed at declaring where Russian identity begins and ends.