New Report: Putin’s regime and the politics of memory
Putin’s regime is politicising history on a massive scale. The Russian leadership often exploits the past in order to pursue its foreign policy goals and promote its identity politics in the country.
December 30, 2021 - New Eastern Europe - New Eastern Europe
Many contradictions are clear within Russia’s politics of memory. On the one hand, the Gulag State Museum in Moscow was established in 2001 and remains an active research institute. On the other hand, the Russian regime is placing more and more pressure on independent researchers and seeking a return to a positive understanding of Joseph Stalin and his rule. Currently, Czechia and Poland are facing particular challenges from Moscow’s politics of memory. In fact, the politics of memory promoted by Russia in Central and Eastern Europe should rather be called a war of memory. As a result, the Association for International Affairs (AMO) from Prague and The Jan Nowak Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe from Wrocław decided to join forces and launch a common research project devoted to this topic. This study received financial support from the Czech-Polish Forum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
This special report of New Eastern Europe, titled “Putin’s regime and the politics of memory: Czech, Polish and Russian perspectives”, is one of the main outcomes of our project.
Download the report in PDF format here.