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Tag: Post-soviet memory

How Russia’s neighbours re-evaluated Victory Day after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

Victory Day was once an important secular holiday across most former Soviet states, reflected in family traditions and regime legitimization. Then came 2022. Moscow’s equation of the holiday with its maximalist war on Ukraine triggered different degrees of re-evaluation across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia – with its 80th anniversary offering a litmus test for normalizing Russia’s aggression.

June 5, 2025 - Alexander Neuman

Belarus’s Day of National Unity: reinforcing regime narratives and alienating minorities

On September 17th, Belarus celebrated its fourth annual “Day of National Unity”, a public holiday established by Alyaksandr Lukashenka's decree in 2021. This date, marking the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, continues to be a focal point for the regime's endeavours to revise history. Its anti-Polish rhetoric further strains relations with its western neighbour and alienates Belarus's Polish minority.

November 7, 2024 - Hanna Vasilevich

The museum of gifts for Stalin’s 70th birthday

The Russian-Italian sculptor Jurij Tilman shares his memories of a exhibition he visited as a child and discusses the surprising effect the experience had on his work.

October 1, 2024 - Aleksej Tilman Jurij Tilman

Nascent, destroyed, aspiring: three cinematic visions of Dushanbe

The past century has seen the Tajik capital Dushanbe change in many ways. As the city celebrates its first one hundred years at the country’s heart, it is worth looking back at the media that has encapsulated its many eras.

August 14, 2024 - Karolina Kluczewska

The Bloody Treaty

August 23rd marks the anniversary of the infamous Non-Aggression Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. While the document ultimately led to the start of the Second World War, the Kremlin continues to challenge this historical consensus. This corresponds with Moscow’s past attempts to obscure the memory of millions of Jews who suffered directly as a result of the agreement.

August 23, 2023 - Alex Gordon

Symbolic cultural elements and the restored territorial integrity of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s fight to regain control of the disputed Karabakh region has included more than fighting on the frontline. Throughout the three decades between the main Karabakh conflicts, Baku has attempted to use various cultural elements to promote its cause both at home and abroad.

February 20, 2023 - Ismayil Fataliyev

A war of narratives: Russia’s disinformation abuses history

Putin has continued to promote a vivid narrative in defence of his decision to invade Ukraine. Focused on the Great Patriotic War against Nazism, this outlook promotes the idea that the current conflict is connected to such events. However, the influence of this narrative in Russia appears to be somewhat waning.

January 23, 2023 - Joshua Kroeker

Fallen heroes: the challenging issue of remembering controversial figures.

There is no model approach to dealing with how to commemorate controversial figures in the post-Soviet world. Estonia could provide an example for countries in the region on how to counter an often deafening silence.

December 12, 2022 - Owen Howells

Nullifying German culture: The dangers of wartime policies

The German minority in Russia experienced the repressive policies of both the Russian Empire and Soviet Union first hand. Their legacy is mostly forgotten and suppressed in today’s Russia.

October 18, 2022 - Joshua Kroeker

Mikhail Gorbachev: the last Soviet leader

To the West, Gorbachev was a man one could do business with. To Russians he was the one who destroyed the USSR.

September 9, 2022 - Agnieszka Bryc

The crimes of Bucha have a long history

Recent news from Ukraine has revealed numerous instances of abuse faced by women and girls in occupied areas. In order to understand such crimes, it is necessary to look at the experiences of those who suffered at the hands of the Soviet army around the end of the Second World War.

April 21, 2022 - Daina S. Eglitis

The forbidden theme of repression: History in the service of authoritarian politics

The Kremlin is striving to erase any historical discourse that undermines the official narrative that Russia must be ruled by an authoritarian system of government. History is rewritten, its dark chapters are glossed over, and independent historians are repressed. This is not just a whim of the former KGB officers who rule the country. Their goal is to perpetuate practices that strengthen Russian authoritarianism, which is based on systemic violence against the country’s citizens.

November 30, 2021 - Maria Domańska

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