Circulation, Conditions, Claims: Examining the Politics of Historical Memory in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Across Eastern Europe how the past is remembered has become a crucial factor for understanding present-day political developments within and between states. In this introduction, we first present the articles that form part of this special section through a discussion of the various methods used by the authors to demonstrate the potential ways into studying collective memory. We then define the regional characteristics of Eastern Europe’s mnemonic politics and the reasons for their oftentimes conflictual character. Thereafter we consider three thematic arenas that situate the individual contributions to this special section within the wider scholarly debate. First, we examine the institutional and structural conditions that shape the circulation of memory and lead to conflictive constellations of remembering; second, we discuss how different regime types and cultural rules influence the framing of historical episodes, paying attention to supranational integration and the role of technological change; third, we consider the different types of actors that shape the present recall of the past, including political elites, social movements, and society at large. We conclude by identifying several promising avenues for further research.

When the Past Is Not Another Country: The Battlefields of History in Russia

“…In doing so, Russia promotes a counter-hegemonic narrative to the victim-centered focus of the West's cosmopolitan memory, but also stands opposed to the historical particularism evident throughout Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, where national narratives are today often deliberately anti-Soviet in orientation. 9 This special issue extends, and adapts to the Russian case, the analytical framework we developed in a previous publication focused on East-Central Europe (Krawatzek and Soroka 2021). Below we frame discussion in terms of the three theoretical arenas introduced therein: (1) the circulation of memories across space and time, as well as their inherently entangled and often contested nature; (2) the factors that condition the recall of the past, along with the means through which remembering takes place and memories are reproduced; and (3) the actors involved in facilitating (or hampering) these processes.…”

Performing Memory in Conflicting Settings: Russian Immigrants and the Remembrance of World War II in Finland

“…Mediatization of immigrant groups challenges existing integration politics, which aim at the inclusion of immigrants. 1 as pointed out in the Introduction and in other articles of this special section, 2 transnational and national identity politics based on collective memories deserve more attention, especially when they intertwine with the "techno-cultural opportunities" provided by contemporary media. 3 But also without technological change, transnationalism has been a crucial factor for understanding the dynamics of remembering.…”

Agonistic homecomings: Holocaust postmemory, perspective and locality

“…The memory of the Second World War in Eastern Europe is increasingly mired in competing claims and narratives. While some associate the antagonism of recent historical discourse to the rise of illiberal nationalism and nativist populism in countries like Hungary and Poland (Krawatzek and Soroka, 2022), others perceive a more abstract cause in the failure of the cosmopolitan mode of memory (Bull and Hansen, 2016). Emphasizing the universality of ethical reasoning, cosmopolitan memory has been held as a progressive model for the engagement with historical trauma in general and the Holocaust in particular (Levy and Sznaider, 2005), especially as concerns the integration of central and east European states into the European Union (EU) after the collapse of communism.…”