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Regular version of the site

Mariëlle Wijermars to speak on ' Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia: Television, Cinema and the State '

Event ended

On September 28 an open lecture by Mariëlle Wijermars (Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow, Aleksanteri Institute, Finnish Centre for Russian and Eastern European Studies) on 'Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia: Television, Cinema and the State' will be held at HSE.

Abstract:

Since Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian central government has increasingly actively employed cultural memory to claim political legitimacy and discredit political opposition. The rhetorical use of the past has become a defining characteristic of Russian politics, creating a historical foundation for the regime’s emphasis on a strong state and centralised leadership. Yet the Russian government is not the only one who has used history to spread its ideas about how the Russian state ‘traditionally’ should be governed. Various societal, cultural and religious groups and organisations, have put forward their own historically framed visions on Russian statehood. In this lecture, Mariëlle Wijermars presents her new book Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia: Television, Cinema and the State, published by Routledge in July 2018, that examines this societal dynamics of memory politics in contemporary Russia in the period 2000-2012.

Exploring memory politics, the book analyses a wide range of actors, from the central government and the Russian Orthodox Church to filmmaker and cultural heavyweight Nikita Mikhalkov and radical thinkers such as Aleksandr Dugin. In addition, in view of the steady decline in media freedom since 2000, it critically examines the role of cinema and television in shaping and spreading these narratives. Thus, it aims to gain a better understanding of the various means through which the Russian government practices its memory politics (e.g., the role of state media) and, on the other hand, to sufficiently value the existence of alternative and critical voices and criticism that existing studies tend to overlook. The lecture will draw from the case studies included in the book as well as refer to more recent trends in Russian memory politics.

Start time: 18.10

Address: 2/8 Khitrovsky pereulok, bld. 5, room 500

Working language: English