Master Class – McGill University

“Russian Memory Politics in the (East) European Context”

Viacheslav Morozov, Professor of EU–Russia Studies, University of Tartu

Abstract:
This lecture will trace the evolution of Russian memory politics in the regional context and offer a theoretical interpretation of these developments. The degree of politicisation of history and the intensity of ‘memory wars’ in Russia is high compared to the countries in Western Europe, but certainly not without parallels within the limits of the former socialist bloc. Moreover, Russia was not the first to introduce legal and institutional means to influence national memory. This regional dimension is extremely important for the understanding of Russia’s relations with its neighbours, especially the Baltics, Poland and Ukraine. It is also key to many aspects of domestic politics. It reflects the defensive attitude of the Russian political elites, whose thinking is framed by the centuries-long experience of maintaining an ‘empire of insecurity’ (Kivelson and Suny 2017). International hierarchies resulting from uneven and combined development and leading to what I describe as subaltern imperialism are key to the understanding of these phenomena, in Russia and beyond.

The Master Class will take place on February 1, 2018, at 1.30 pm in the Rutherford Physics Building, 3600 University St, Room 118



Comments are closed.