The Role of the Soviet Past in Post-Soviet Memory Politics through Examples of Speeches from Estonian Presidents

Jõesalu, Kirsti

doi:10.1080/09668136.2012.691723

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Kazakhstan is not an exception in using the memory of the terror victims in its nationbuilding process (Denison 2009(Denison , 1167Joesalu 2012Joesalu , 1007Malinova 2012, 388). Arguably, the commemorative practices are employed as a symbolic support to unite an ethnically diverse population.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remembrance Day speeches as a specific type of commemorative activity According to Joesalu (2012), Peter Reichel in his study of the politics of memory in Germany has identified political celebrations and official anniversaries -among other mediums of memorial activity -that effectively use emotion to produce feelings of identity and integration (Joesalu 2012). We will analyze material mainly from speeches given by Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev from 2007 to 2015.…”

Section: Memorial Museums To Victims Of Stalin's Political Repressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Kundakbayeva

Kassymova

2016

Natl. pap.

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The general perception of Western analysts and observers is that the nation-states created as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union all treat the memory of the dark, repressive aspects of the Stalinist regime in public spaces as a symbolic element in the creation of a new post-Soviet identity [Denison, Michael. 2009. “The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.”Europe-Asia Studies61 (7): 1167–1187]. We argue that the government of Kazakhstan employs non-nationalistic discourse in its treatment of Stalinist victims’ commemoration in a variety of forms, through the creation of modern memorial complexes at the sites of horrific Soviet activity (mass burial places, labor camps, and detention centers), purpose-built museum exhibitions, and the commemorative speeches of its president and other officials. Kazakhstan's strategy in commemorating its Soviet past is designed to highlight the inclusiveness of repression on all peoples living in its territory at that time, not just Kazakhs, thereby assisting in bringing together its multinational and multiethnic society. Thus, the official stance treats this discourse as an important symbolic source of shaping the collective memory of the nation, based on “a general civil identity without prioritizing one ethnic group over another — a national unity, founded on the recognition of a common system of values and principles for all citizens” [Shakirova, Svetlana. 2012. “Letters to Nazarbaev: Kazakhstan's Intellectuals Debate National Identity.” February 7. Accessed July 28, 2015.http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/discussion/letters-nazarbaev-kazakhstans-intellectuals-debate-national-identity].

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Memorial Museums To Victims Of Stalin's Political Repressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Kundakbayeva

Kassymova

2016

Natl. pap.

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“…In the words of the current Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaitė (2016), ‘five long decades were ripped away from the one hundred years of our journey by the Soviet occupation which left us with many unhealing wounds’. In turn, within this temporal order, the Soviet occupation becomes a ‘filter of meaning’, operationalised through the lenses of ‘rupture’ and ‘resistance’ as illustrated by Estonian presidential speeches on a national holiday, 24 February (see Jõesalu, 2012; Jõesalu and Kõresaar, 2013: 177; Figure 3). With the whole Soviet period being represented as equally alien, the intra-Soviet differences become trivial.…”

Section: Silences Within the Social Organisation Of National Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisitingthe social organisation of national memory: A look at the calendars of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia

Andrejevs

2018

Memory Studies

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This article presents a study of the social organisation of the national memories of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (the Baltic states). It draws inspiration from and expands the scope of the application of Eviatar Zerubavel's largely unexplored methodological tools for the study of calendars. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is threefold. First, this paper offers an application of the above tools to the case of the Baltic states. Second, by doing so it provides an overview of comparative patterns within Baltic calendars. Third, it is argued that by exposing the social organisation of national memory, this approach offers insight into silences, providing an entry point for an engagement with amnesiology, as coined by Liedeke Plate.

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“…On the memory policy level (history books, official statements and politicians' speeches), the Soviet era in post-Soviet Estonia is interpreted in the framework of the discourse of rupture (Kõresaar 2005;Jõesalu & Kõresaar forthcoming;Jõesalu 2012). Ene Kõresaar has used the notion 'prolonged rupture', in which the meaning of the Stalinist era is attributed to the entire Soviet period in Estonia (from 1940 to the end of the 1980s) (Kõresaar 2005: 151).…”

Section: On Discontinuitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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2012

FEJF

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Art Leete ing cultural heritage tourism of both a local and international nature in search of undiscovered "exotic" others-cf. Picard & Robinson 2006; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998). According to our hypothesis, the current rise of local or ethnic identities, or the strengthening of ethnic ties inside the groups studied is considered to be natural by some of its members. Thus we interpret the concept of ethnicity in the framework of discourse (cf. Brubaker 1997; Calhoun 1997), and therefore we planned to analyse the discursive practices in flux between the markers of 'ethnic' and 'local' identities. In addition, performative aspects of identities and embodied practices in which different groups enact and (re)produce their identities, are taken into consideration. Performances both in traditional and more popular contemporary events continually reconstitute identities by rehearsing and transmitting meanings, by making conflicts or negotiations explicit in encounters between locals and Others (Edensor 2002: 69-102). Considering the explosive changes in the socioeconomic systems during the past couple of decades, previous identities have fallen under multi-faceted and contradictory pressures particularly in marginal localities and regions. Therefore it is of significant importance to analyse in greater detail the embodiment and shaping of identities in (both literally and metaphorically) borderline situations. The scientific objectives of the target-financed project are related to the estimation of the role of ethnic institutions and their activists: an analysis of the programmes and ideologies of ethnic organisations, the efficiency of political representation at local and regional levels. The research team also aimed to study the dynamics of interaction with state and regional administrations, and to analyse the emergent relations inside the group as well as the different ideologies that influence the processes of actualisation or de-actualisation of local ethnic identities. In addition, the group intended to investigate how local communities recognise their potential in the context of dynamic changes, how they further their own interests, and how groups or individuals construct their self-image in changing circumstances. Our general objectives are approached through research that delves deeper into particular problems-e.g. studying the role of religion, ideology, politics, remembering, everyday life, social networks, and commodification in the multicultural context. The research team of anthropologists and ethnologists that gathered together to carry out the target-financed project is part of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT, 2008-2015). The CECT unites scholars from Tallinn University and the University of Tartu, representing various disciplines. The aim of the CECT is to develop a transdisciplinary methodology and theory in studying the concepts of identity and memory. The Centre of Excellence was

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The Role of the Soviet Past in Post-Soviet Memory Politics through Examples of Speeches from Estonian Presidents

Cited by 16 publications

References 17 publications

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Remembering and forgetting: the state policy of memorializing Stalin's repression in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Revisitingthe social organisation of national memory: A look at the calendars of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia

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