Selected Aspects of Contemporary Russian Cultural Memory

Abstract

The article “Selected Aspects of Contemporary Russian Cultural Memory” presents the influence of the Russian government on the changes in cultural memory in the 2000s and 2010s, and indicates some of their sources dating back to the era of Leonid Brezhnev and the 1990s. The analysis of cultural memory is inspired by the work of a German researcher of cultural memory, Aleida Assmann. The article discusses the transformation of the meanings of selected elements of Russian cultural memory, carried out by creating new symbols such as the ribbon of Saint George, or the transformation of the meaning of symbols such as Victory Day, once associated with communist ideology, into symbols associated with the conservative model of spiritual bonds (духовные скрепы). As a result, Russian cultural memory is created and strengthened by the Russian government as both the memory of the winners and the memory of the victims.