1st Edition
Conservatism and Memory Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe
This book discusses the diverse practices and discourses of memory politics in Russia and Eastern Europe. It argues that currently prevailing conservativism has a long tradition, which continued even in Communist times, and is different to conservatism in the West, which can accommodate other viewpoints within liberal democratic systems. It considers how important history is for conservatism, and how history is reconstituted according to changing circumstances. It goes on to examine in detail values which are key to conservatism, such as patriotism, Christianity and religious life, and the traditional model of the family, the importance of the sovereign national state within globalization, and the emphasis on a strong paternal state, featuring hierarchy, authority and political continuity. The book concludes by analysing how far states in the region are experiencing a common trend and whether different countries’ conservative narratives are reinforcing each other or are colliding.
Introduction: Conservatism and Memory Politics Katalin Miklóssy 1. Putin’s History Politics and Conservative turn Markku Kangaspuro 2. A Conservative Turn in a Patriarchal Society? The Entangled Memory of Female Political Activism in Post-Soviet Russia Nadezda Petrusenko 3. Non-traditional Sexual Relationships: Law, Forgetting and the Conservative Political Discourse in Russia Alexander Kondakov 4. How to Conserve Kertbeny’s Grave? A Case of Post-Communist Queer Necrophilia Judit Takács 5. Witnesses from Gulag and Literary theosis: Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Stories and Evgeni Vodolazkin’s Aviator Elina Kahla 6. Revisiting the Narrative of Conservative Russian Islam Kaarina Aitamurto 7. Memory and leverage: Russia’s history policing and the remembrance of 1956 in Hungary Katalin Miklóssy 8. A Conservative Turn in Belarus? Exploring the Normative Power Potential of the Russian Conservative Agenda Natalia Morozova 9. Serbia and Russia: between Piety and Politics Brendan Humphreys 10. Paradigm change in Holocaust remembrance: instrumentalising conservatism Andrea Pető 11. Dilemma over Stalin: Confronting the Great Patriotic War and the Reputation of Russia Markku Kangaspuro 12. Victory Day, Family Style: Grassroots War Commemoration, Collective Memory Habits, and the Shaping of Public Affect Ekaterina Haskins 13. The Routinization of Conservatism: Key Stakeholders of Patriotic Education in Contemporary Russia Anna Sanina 14. Whose Turn, for Whom? Conservative Values and Putinʼs Social Contract Jussi Lassila
Biography
Katalin Miklóssy is Head of East European Studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
Markku Kangaspuro is Director of the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
