The Politics of Nostalgia: A Case for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Practices

Nadkarni, Maya; Shevchenko, Olga

doi:10.1353/imp.2004.0067

Cited by 57 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Even a cursory look at the existing body of work on post-socialist memory instantly reveals a fascination with nostalgia, a term used loosely to refer to a variety of practices and beliefs that involve a sentimental relationship with the past, accompanied by feelings of loss and longing (for a selection of literature on the topic see Boym 2001, Nadkarni and Shevchenko 2004, Boyer 2006, Berdahl 2010, Todorova and Gille 2010, Velikonja 2009. From the craze for socialist-era consumer products to happy memories of everyday life under communist rule, post-socialist nostalgia has attracted attention among scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, from history to anthropology and sociology.…”

Section: Nostalgia and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory, post-socialism and the media: Nostalgia and beyond

Mihelj

2016

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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it offers a critical review of the main trends in existing research, focussing on four key issues: the fascination with nostalgic modes of remembering, the dominance of national frames of analysis, the lack of research on the mediation of personal and vernacular remembering, and the privileging of descriptive over explanatory modes of analysis. Second, the article outlines a new agenda for the field, and proposes three main research trajectories. The first pays attention to how mediated memories at local and national levels interact with transnational processes of remembering the Cold War, the second focusses on to the intersections between personal and public modes of mediated remembering, and the last moves the discussion from description to explanation, using comparative approaches to advance explanations of different modes of mediated postsocialist memories.Keywords: memory, media, post-socialism, nostalgia, television, transnational memoryThe demise of state socialism in Eastern Europe triggered a profound restructuring of individual and collective relationships with the socialist past. Released from the straightjacket of Cold War politics, memories of the Second World War, the communist takeover and the decades of life under communist rule provided a rich resource for politically driven mythmaking across the political spectrum, as well as for creative engagements with the past in the visual arts and museums (e.g., Bernhard and Kubik 2014, Boym 2001, Sarkisova and Apor 2008, Tileaga 2012, Todorova and Gille 2010. Narratives of the socialist past also became important at vernacular and everyday level, and served as vehicles for making sense of the post-socialist transformation and for orienting one's own sense of identity and belonging (e.g., Berdahl 2010, Mark 2010, Mihelj 2014, Rabikowska 2013. The rich and growing body of scholarly work on post-socialist memory has by now provided important insights into the varied layers and processes of memory formation in the region, ranging from public to vernacular and personal memories, as well as helped further our understanding of mnemonic processes more generally, elucidating the ways in which they are affected by rapid political, economic and social changes.In recent years, the role of the media in shaping post-socialist memories has also begun to attract attention. One of the notable traits of existing research in this area is its preference for small-scale case studies focused on a single medium and situated in specific national locales (for an exception see Volčič 2007). So far film has received the most concerted attention, with studies typically privileging the analysis of cinematic texts over the analysis of audience reception and the political and economic uses of mediated representations of the past (Bardan In contrast, research concerned with the mnemonic functions of television is more sociologically minded, pays less attention to televisual representations themselves, but regularly reaches beyond the analysis of television programmes to investigate h...

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Section: Nostalgia and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory, post-socialism and the media: Nostalgia and beyond

Mihelj

2016

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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“…Salmenniemi (2010) describes the Russian authorities' view of civil society as a mix of new neoliberal rationality and the statist, paternalist rationality continuing from the Soviet era. Nadkarni and Shevchenko (2004) suggest that the Russian government's political project is drawing on people's nostalgia, and that this project is based on the 'return' to the familiar social contract of Soviet times in exchange for citizens' political disengagement. Material memory and nostalgia are used as stakes in this 'game', which Nadkarni and Shevchenko (2004, 513-514) see as the 'essence of Putin's politics'.…”

Section: Overcoming Citizens' 'Sovietness' With Liberalism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Levada Center, 46% of their survey respondents preferred pre-perestroika affairs. However, only 5% saw the return to these affairs as possible (Nadkarni and Shevchenko 2004).…”

Section: Overcoming Citizens' 'Sovietness' With Liberalism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Funk (2004 argues that nationalism and the emphasis on a strong state have been dominant ideas in soviet and post-Soviet liberal as well as non-liberal thought. According to Nadkarni and Shevchenko (2004), during the 2000s not only the Putin administration but also the Russian intelligentsia drifted into a populist and traditionalist direction. This process is based on the loss of the fantasy of the West as the ideal 'other' during the Soviet Union and, on the other hand, related to the loss of Russia's imperial presence in world politics.…”

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Performing Political Opposition in Russia

Lyytikäinen¹

2016

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Russian civil society is often described as weak and Russians as politically apathetic. However, as a surprise for many, tens of thousands of people gathered on the streets of Moscow to protest the fraud in the parliamentary elections in December 2011. Nevertheless, this 'awakening' did not last for long as Vladimir Putin took hold of the Presidency again in 2012. Since then, the Russian State Duma has passed new legislation to restrict civic and political activism. This, together with the fragmentation of the opposition movement, has hindered large-scale and sustained mobilization against the government. In 2013, the number of protests has plummeted when the risks of demonstrating are high and the benefits to participate in political activism appear non-existent.Why is it impossible for the Russian opposition to find a common voice and to sustain contentious action? This book analyzes how political opportunities and restrictions in contemporary Russia have affected the opposition activists' activities at the grassroots level. The book examines Russian civil society, contemporary activist strategies, and democratization from the perspective of the young activists participating in the liberal youth movement Oborona (Defense) in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Before its dissolution in 2011, Oborona was an active participant in the Russian opposition movement, and thus it is an interesting case study of the living activist traditions in Russia.The research illustrates how the Soviet continuities and liberal ideas are entangled in Russian political activism to create new post-socialist political identities and practices. In Russia, the group of dissenters is small, and the political elite in power do not leave much room for voices of dissent in order for the opposition to grow and diverge. However, the study argues that one of the reasons of Oborona's demise came from inside the movement: The group's solidarity was based on personal ties instead of political connectedness. Furthermore, the movement suffered from the lack of common ideological goals and leader-centeredness. The research suggests that these problems can be found in Russia's liberal opposition in general and explain why it is inefficient to mobilize large amounts of people for public demonstrations and to sustain protests.The research draws on sociological theories on identities, social performance, and politicization as well as class, gender and generation studies. The data is derived from thematic interviews and ABSTRACTThis book examines Russian civil society and democratization from the perspective of the oppositional youth activists in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It takes the Russian youth movement Oborona (Defense) as its case study. Before its dissolution in 2011, the movement was an active participant in the 'non-systemic' opposition, and thus it is an interesting case study of the 'actually existing' activist traditions in Russia. The book analyses how youth activists use the tools applicable in today's Russia to resist and reinterpret the cultura...

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“…Gorbachev refused to take part, asking what the purpose was of "putting in the dock 70 years of our history?" 72 In 2000, on a state visit to France, Putin visited the Sainte-Genevièvedes-Bois cemetery outside Paris, the site of some ten thousand graves of Russian émigrés . Defenders of the party stressed its members' sacrifi ces during the Civil War and World War II, its successes during the space race, and the selfreform it launched by its denunciation of Stalin at the Twentieth Party Congress, noting that most of Stalin's victims were Communists.…”

Section: The Politics Of Possibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is to Be Done with Soviet Russia? The Politics of Proscription and Possibility

Corney

2009

JPH

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The Politics of Nostalgia: A Case for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Practices

Cited by 57 publications

References 12 publications

Memory, post-socialism and the media: Nostalgia and beyond

Memory, post-socialism and the media: Nostalgia and beyond

Performing Political Opposition in Russia

What Is to Be Done with Soviet Russia? The Politics of Proscription and Possibility

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