220348 History and memory in contemporary Russia (S) (SoSe 2025)

In contemporary Russia, history is used and abused in state and opposition political discourses. However, in recent years there have been many initiatives aimed at taking a more critical and diversified view of the past and creating a more inclusive memorial culture. The course is aimed at considering various forms of interpretation of the past (pre-revolutionary, Soviet, post-Soviet). We will discuss memorial culture through the cases of museums, monuments, popular culture, related public discussions, and state politics of memory. During the course we will read and discuss various sources and research papers on the complexities, contradictions and conflicts of memorial culture in Russia. Along with experience of academic discussions in Russian, students will learn theoretical frames and practical approaches of public history, memory studies, and critical heritage studies. The course will be conducted online in English. The course is organized in cooperation with Off University and Memory Studies Association.

Course themes:

Seminar 1: Public history and memory studies in the Russian context
Seminar 2: Concepts of Post-Socialist, Post-Soviet and Homo Sovieticus
Seminar 3: Historical politics in the USSR and the post-Soviet Russia (on the cases of the transformation of images of historical figures)
Seminar 4: Official and vernacular monuments to Stalin
Seminar 5: “Affective management of history” in Russia
Seminar 6: State-sponsored history and park “Russia — My History”
Seminar 7: Memory of the Soviet repressions in museums
Seminar 8: Memory activism in Russia
Seminar 9. Historical attraction and fantasy restoration: Tsaritsyno Park
Seminar 10: Urban and heritage activism in Russia
Seminar 11: Post-Soviet nostalgia in Russian propaganda and
Seminar 12: Nostalgia for the 1990s
Seminar 13. History and New media
Seminar 14: Postcolonial approach to Russian regions
Seminar 15: Gender and Queer histories in contemporary Russia
Seminar 16: Final colloquium

Bibliography

1. Boele, O., Noordenbos, B., Robbe, K. (eds.) (2022) Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Confronting the Empire’s Legacies. New York: Routledge.
2. Koposov, N. (2017) Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. McGlynn, J. (2023). Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic.
4. Sharafutdinova, G. (2023). The Afterlife of the ‘Soviet Man’. Rethinking Homo Sovieticus. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.