The politic of history and the Memory law in Russia

Abstract

The article by Nikolay Koposov specifically analyzes a draft law on memory, which was discussed by the Russian Parliament in 2009. The project dates back to the Russian-Estonian conflict of 2007 on the occasion of the transfer of the bronze monument “to the unknown Soviet soldier” from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery: one of the many memory conflicts opened in the course of recent years between Russia and some of its neighbors (Ukraine, Poland, Baltic countries). Russia has been particularly sensitive to any criticism concerning the role of the Soviet Union in World War II. After the end of the USSR, the memory of the war has become the main foundation of the Russian national identity, which in turn serves to eclipse another memory: the Stalinist terror, with which neither successive post-Soviet governments nor the majority of the population have wanted, until now, to take charge. Another of its functions consists in the interest of convincing the Russian people of the positive role of the State in national history, the central ideological core of the current Russian power. If at the beginning of the nineties the neo-Stalinist conception of history seemed completely overcome, then it has gained strength and has even witnessed a certain rehabilitation of the late dictator as both the victor of the world war and the modernizer of Russian society. The myth of the innocent and heroic people and the glorification of the State appear at the center of collective representations. In this context of revival of a Russian nationalism is where this project on memory has been placed, of which Koposov describes its itineraries and conclusions.