Lecture 'When the Past is the Present: Russia’s Memory Policy, Lawfare on Memory and International Relations'

Lecture by dr. Alina Cherviatsova, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center, Ghent University.

For Russia, history is an ideological tool to justify political decisions, both internal and external. Unlike a democracy whose legitimacy is rest in the fair elections, which are the matter of present, an authoritarian regime often turns to the past to find there the grounds for self-legitimation. This is the reason why Russia’s government is preoccupied with collective memories and their legal regulation prescribing by law – ‘memorial laws’ – what should be remembered and how. ‘Historical truth’ has become a matter of Russia’s national security and, at the same time, a fundamental constitutional value to be protected by the state. The resurgence of neo-imperialist stance based on the Soviet legacy and ‘glory of the past’ has made Russia the main actor of European ‘memory wars’.

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