This book discusses the diverse practices and discourses of memory politics in Russia and Eastern Europe. It argues that currently prevailing conservativism has a long tradition, which continued even in Communist times, and is different to conservatism in the West, which can accommodate other viewpoints within liberal democratic systems.
This book discusses the diverse practices and discourses of memory politics in Russia and Eastern Europe. It argues that currently prevailing conservativism has a long tradition, which continued even in Communist times, and is different to conservatism in the West, which can accommodate other viewpoints within liberal democratic systems. It considers how important history is for conservatism, and how history is reconstituted according to changing circumstances. It goes on to examine in detail values which are key to conservatism, such as patriotism, Christianity and religious life, and the traditional model of the family, the importance of the sovereign national state within globalization, and the emphasis on a strong paternal state, featuring hierarchy, authority and political continuity. The book concludes by analysing how far states in the region are experiencing a common trend and whether different countries’ conservative narratives are reinforcing each other or are colliding.
Introduction: Conservatism and Memory Politics Katalin Miklóssy
1.
Putins History Politics and Conservative turn Markku Kangaspuro
2. A
Conservative Turn in a Patriarchal Society? The Entangled Memory of Female
Political Activism in Post-Soviet Russia Nadezda Petrusenko
3.
Non-traditional Sexual Relationships: Law, Forgetting and the Conservative
Political Discourse in Russia Alexander Kondakov
4. How to Conserve
Kertbenys Grave? A Case of Post-Communist Queer Necrophilia Judit Takács
5.
Witnesses from Gulag and Literary theosis: Varlam Shalamovs Kolyma Stories
and Evgeni Vodolazkins Aviator Elina Kahla
6. Revisiting the Narrative of
Conservative Russian Islam Kaarina Aitamurto
7. Memory and leverage: Russias
history policing and the remembrance of 1956 in Hungary Katalin Miklóssy
8. A
Conservative Turn in Belarus? Exploring the Normative Power Potential of the
Russian Conservative Agenda Natalia Morozova
9. Serbia and Russia: between
Piety and Politics Brendan Humphreys
10. Paradigm change in Holocaust
remembrance: instrumentalising conservatism Andrea Pet
11. Dilemma over
Stalin: Confronting the Great Patriotic War and the Reputation of Russia
Markku Kangaspuro
12. Victory Day, Family Style: Grassroots War
Commemoration, Collective Memory Habits, and the Shaping of Public Affect
Ekaterina Haskins
13. The Routinization of Conservatism: Key Stakeholders of
Patriotic Education in Contemporary Russia Anna Sanina
14. Whose Turn, for
Whom? Conservative Values and Putins Social Contract Jussi Lassila
Katalin Miklóssy is Head of East European Studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
Markku Kangaspuro is Director of the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
