Elena Rozhdestvenskaya / Victoria Semenova / Irina Tartakovskaya et al. (eds.): Collective Memories in War, London / New York: Routledge 2016. (original) (raw)

War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

2017

The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from 'what we know' to 'how we remember it'; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensifi cation of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking new series tackles questions such as: What is 'memory' under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination? More information about this series at

Introduction: War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus

Julie Fedor, Markku Kangaspuro, Jussi Lassila, and Tatiana Zhurzhenko (eds), War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), 2017

This introductory essay begins with a discussion of World War II memory in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, in light of the recent and ongoing war in Ukraine. It outlines the main contours of the interplay between “memory wars” and real war, and the important “post-Crimean” qualitative shift in local memory cultures in this connection. Next, the essay sketches out the specifics of the war memory landscapes of the region, and then of each of the three individual countries, before moving on to introduce the key organizing themes and findings of the book.

McGlynn, Jade — Jones, Oliver T. (eds.): Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe Interdisciplinary Methodologies

Czech Journal of International Relations

The reviewed book provides an ambitious contribution to the study of historical politics and the politics of memory. The politics of memory refers to a specific interdisciplinary area of political science that investigates how the state and other individual actors influence the perception of the past in different states. The volume covers the region where the deep scars of past violence are misused and instrumentalized in the conduct of everyday politics, with extensive discussions of theoretical starting points and methodological approaches. The authors try to answer questions such as how to measure historical memory, ensure subjectivity does not interfere with the study of memory, and ensure memory is represented accurately in media and literature.

Russians’ historical memory of the great patriotic war of 1941-1945 in sociological research

Sustainable and Innovative Development in the Global Digital Age

This study dwells on the historical memory of Russians about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Based on the analysis of various sociological studies on revealing the attitude to the Great Patriotic War, as well as the authors’ research, we concluded that the historical memory about the war of 1941-1945 of the significant majority of Russians (in particular student youth) shows the continuity in their understanding of the leading role of our country in the victory over the enemy and its allies. The obtained data do not diverge from the official position of the Russian state on this key issue. It is important to note the fact that Russian families almost have no veterans who participated in that war. However, they keep carefully transmitting the information about the war events from generation to generation, which is an important component of the cultural tradition and national identity of Russia.

Reclaiming the Past, Confronting the Past: OUN-UPA Memory Politics and Nation-Building in Ukraine (1991-2016), in: War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, ed. Julie Fedor, Markku Kangaspuro, Jussi Lassila, and Tatiana Zhurzhenko, Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies, 2017.

Review on: Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe Interdisciplinary Methodologies

McGlynn, Jade – Jones, Oliver T. (eds.): Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe Interdisciplinary Methodologies, 2023

The book on «Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe» provides an ambitious contribution to the study of historical politics and the politics of memory. The politics of memory refers to a specific interdisciplinary area of political science that investigates how the state and other individual actors influence the perception of the past in different states. The volume covers the region where the deep scares of past violence are misused and instrumentalized in the conduct of everyday politics, with extensive discussions of theoretical starting points and methodological approaches. The authors try to answer questions such as how to measure historical memory, ensure subjectivity does not interfere with the study of memory, and ensure memory is representative in media and literature.