The Long Life of Stalinism: Reflections on the Aftermath of Totalitarianism and Social Memory

Tumarkin, Maria

doi:10.1353/jsh.2011.0043

Cited by 10 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…To this trend, Russia is no exception. Not only do today's Russians hold nostalgic feelings toward the 'mature socialism' of Brezhnev's era (Oushakine 2009, Yurchak 2006, but in fact, they retain ambiguous attitudes even to the Stalinist period of Soviet history (Tumarkin 2011). Thus, while in Germany, the need to commemorate the victims of Nazi crimes has gained broad consensus (Forest et al 2004, Young 1992, in Russia, where the numbers of the murdered are of comparative vastness, one finds a striking 'absence of widespread public monuments' (Etkind 2004: 43).…”

Section: Memory Of Stalinism In Post-soviet Russiamentioning

confidence: 99%

When Memorials Cease to Commemorate: The Museum of the History of Political Repression in Tomsk as a Place of non-Patriotic Remembering

Skulskiy¹

2019

Mus. Soc.

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This article examines tourists' experiences of visiting the Tomsk Memorial Museum of Political Repression. Through a semiological reading of the exhibitions and textual analysis of visitor books, I show how despite the museum's proclaimed purpose as a place of remembrance, tourists frame their visits in terms of education and entertainment. Referring to memory as a discursive practice, I demonstrate how the exhibition does not fit the dominant patriotic discourse, wherein actors are remembered for their contributions to the Motherland. Because those killed in Gulags are represented as victims rather than heroes, their story remains insignificant and immemorable to many Russians.

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Section: Memory Of Stalinism In Post-soviet Russiamentioning

confidence: 99%

When Memorials Cease to Commemorate: The Museum of the History of Political Repression in Tomsk as a Place of non-Patriotic Remembering

Skulskiy¹

2019

Mus. Soc.

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“…It is only now that some efforts are being made to clarify the historical record, but it will take a long time before this gets absorbed into school teaching or general public perception. 32 In Austria, also, the fact that in 1938 the population and state officials rallied to the Nazi cause and instituted large scale expulsion and killing of the substantial Jewish population has been, until recently, largely overlooked except by a few scholars. A bitter joke about Austria is that they are the world's best propagandists as they have convinced the world and themselves that Ludwig van Beethoven (who was born in what is now Germany) was actually an Austrian (he worked and died in Vienna) while Hitler (who was born in Austria) was a German.…”

Section: Why World War II Memories Remain So Troubled In Europe and E...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whatever totalitarian intentions Castro harbored, he kept them to himself during the guerrilla insurgency, preferring instead to condemn the illegality of the Batista coup and to emphasize his commitment to support the restoration of the 1940 constitution. 32 Few imagined the radical turn that events would take after 1959.…”

Section: Memory and The Cuban Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…link between Nazi anti-Semitism and the Final Solution of the Jewish question. 32 Though historians, prosecutors, and producers of television documentaries had examined the Holocaust since the 1960s, it was first in the 1980s that the Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe, by then widely known as the Holocaust, became a topic of debate and discussion in a broad public extending beyond the political, judicial, and intellectual elites. 33 The radical left had marginalized it in the "red decade" of the late 1960s and 1970s, compared nuclear deterrence to a "nuclear Auschwitz" in the early 1980s and made antagonism toward Israel one of its defining features.…”

Section: Divided Memory Revisited: the Nazi Past In West Germany And ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…33 The radical left had marginalized it in the "red decade" of the late 1960s and 1970s, compared nuclear deterrence to a "nuclear Auschwitz" in the early 1980s and made antagonism toward Israel one of its defining features. Indeed, the leftist terrorist organizations made common cause with Palestinian terrorists who were attacking Israel as well as Jewish persons and institutions 32 Beginning in the first months after the end of World War II and continuing in the seven decades since, there were always German voices seeking "finally" to put the past behind and forget about the Holocaust. With the collapse of communism in 1989 followed by German unification, some observers expected that these voices would achieve their long sought goal in the midst of a wave of nationalist triumphalism.…”

Section: Divided Memory Revisited: the Nazi Past In West Germany And ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Remembrance, History, and Justice. Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies

Đureinović

2017

Europe-Asia Studies

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Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. He had been a collaborator with the Radio Division in the German Foreign Office during the Nazi regime, but in the postwar period, he became a member of the leadership in Palestine without being forced to change his views; he continued to combine anti-Zionism with visceral hatred of the Jews. Herf remarks that in the aftermath of gross human rights violations, there is tension between rapid democratization and judicial reckoning. In his view, the evolution of memory politics in Germany shows that where elements of the old regime persist and where foreign occupation has not taken place, as is the case in most post-dictatorial settings, the ability of the successor democracy to explore the traumatic past has been much weaker. However, by bringing into the discussion Husseini's case, he insists on the vital importance of the complete delegitimation of anti-Semitism and of the support for anti-democratic politics for allowing the possibility of coming to terms with the past. Similar to Chirot, Herf concludes that Germany was an exception because foreign powers and past democratic traditions eventually tipped the balance in favor of memory, despite the existence of widespread cynicism, opportunism, hypocrisy, and amnesia in the postwar period.The last chapter in this section adds an additional facet to Herf's general observations. Romanian political scientist, Alexandru Gussi, underlines the connection between deliberate politics of forgetting and biased politics of memory in post-communist Europe and the collective feelings of frustration among individuals living in this region's societies. He shows how the instrumentalization of the past subverted the moral weight that collective remembrance could potentially carry after 1989. Ultimately, Gussi's conclusions remain within the interpretative framework of the other contributors in the section: politics of memory are an integral part of democratization, but the latter process neither guarantees nor presupposes a genuine confrontation of the past. But the consequences of institutionalized amnesia or selective remembrance are dire on the long term, as they conceal societal tendencies that can severely subvert the very building of democracy.This insight is the stepping stone for Part Two of the volume, which discusses the relationship between the historicization of the past and the dynamics within different publics directly affected or involved in the process of dealing with past. Vladimir Tismaneanu's opening contribution is an essay that fulfills a double function. On the 12 REMEMBRANCE, HISTORY, AND JUSTICE Petrović underlines that as the Milošević trial moves from the legal field to join the ongoing memory wars over his role in the Yugoslav wars, its achievements ought not to be measured solely from the point of its procedural outcome. Despite the protracted and almost unmanageable nature of the proceedings, the trial produced a massive body of evidence, inspiring further proceedings on both the international and national level.The nex...

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Politically Useful Tragedies: The Soviet Atrocities in the Historical Park(s) “Russia — My History”

Klimenko

2021

Problems of Post-Communism

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The Long Life of Stalinism: Reflections on the Aftermath of Totalitarianism and Social Memory

Cited by 10 publications

References 16 publications

When Memorials Cease to Commemorate: The Museum of the History of Political Repression in Tomsk as a Place of non-Patriotic Remembering

When Memorials Cease to Commemorate: The Museum of the History of Political Repression in Tomsk as a Place of non-Patriotic Remembering

Remembrance, History, and Justice. Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies

Politically Useful Tragedies: The Soviet Atrocities in the Historical Park(s) “Russia — My History”

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