A history of post-communist remembrance: from memory politics to the emergence of a field of anticommunism

Abstract

This article invites the view that the Europeanization of an antitotalitarian "collective memory" of communism reveals the emergence of a field of anticommunism. This transnational field is inextricably tied to the proliferation of state-sponsored and anticommunist memory institutes across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), but cannot be treated as epiphenomenal to their propagation. The diffusion of bodies tasked with establishing the "true" history of communism reflects, first and foremost, a shift in the region's approach to its past, one driven by the right's frustration over an allegedly pervasive influence of former communist cliques. Memory institutes spread as the CEE right progressively perceives their emphasis on research and public education as a safer alternative to botched lustration processes. However, the field of anticommunism extends beyond diffusion by seeking to leverage the European Union institutional apparatus to generate previously unavailable forms of symbolic capital for anticommunist narratives. This results in an entirely different challenge, which requires reconciling of disparate ideological and national interests. In this article, I illustrate some of these nationally diverse, but internationally converging, trajectories of communist extrication from the vantage point of its main exponents: the anticommunist memory entrepreneurs, who are invariably found at the helm of memory institutes. Inhabiting the space around the political, historiographic, and Eurocratic fields, anticommunist entrepreneurs weave a complex web of alliances that ultimately help produce an autonomous field of anticommunism.

Reorientation of foreign memories in domestic political speech: Considerations and effects

“…Similarly, transnational memory is used politically to gain recognition of “full Europeanness,” as can be demonstrated in Polish and Baltic post-Cold War processes (Mälksoo, 2009) and the Europeanization of collective memory of anticommunism (e.g. Dujisin, 2021).…”

A microphone in a chandelier: How a secret recording sparks mnemonic imagination and affect

“…It concentrates exclusively on those aspects of significance and relevance which are the product of memory -that is, of a recourse to a past -and which appear only in the light of later readings. (Assmann in Tamm, 2015: 3) This study is situated in the post-Yugoslav situation, characterised by the sliding out of view of the country's history, which has been displaced by nationalist and anti-communist interpretations of the past (see Pušnik and Luthar, 2020; see also Dujisin, 2020). This situation is marked by a drive to complete the 'unfinished revolution' (Mark, 2010), an 'idea that communists retain a toxic and persisting influence over contemporary democratic institutions and that these communists should be removed from public life' (Dujisin, 2020), 2 which influence political power balance and media discourses.…”

De volta à Europa: Rememorar as revoluções de 1989 trinta anos depois, Praga e Budapeste

“…A atuação de Mária Schmidt no governo do Fidesz pode ser perfeitamente compreendida a partir desses elementos. Dujisin (2020), inclusive, considera-a uma das mais longevas empreendedoras de memória anticomunista da Europa Central. Nesse sentido, a proposta da exposição 89' 90' -30 Years of Freedom precisa ser compreendida levando-se em conta, ao mesmo tempo, os objetivos que fundamentaram a criação do Museu e a narrativa construída por ele, bem como o papel desempenhado por Schmidt, há mais de uma década, como diretora da Casa do Terror e quadro importante de um governo extremamente preocupado em (re)escrever a história de seu país.…”

“…A Revolução de 1956 tornou-se, na Hungria, um evento simbólico dos mais importantes para a elaboração das narrativas sobre o passado no pós-1989 e, segundo Dujisin (2020), a reivindicação do evento foi fundamental para o nascimento político de Orbán. Em seu estudo sobre as comemorações do vigésimo aniversário de 1989 na Hungria, Anna Seleny (2014) explica que 1956 se transformou no ponto central de referência do sistema político no país.…”