In our recent PoSoCoMeS online seminar, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ekaterina Haskins as she discussed her new book Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin’s Russia (Penn State University Press, 2024) with Elizaveta Gaufman and Alexandra Yatsyk. The book explores why the memory of the Great Patriotic War remains so powerful in today’s Russia, while public interest in Soviet political terror fades. Ekaterina Haskins examines how war films, urban spaces, and popular rituals shape these trends, showing how both official narratives and family traditions influence remembrance. Continue reading “Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror – An Interview with Ekaterina Haskins”
Post-Socialist Memory: Global Perspectives
by Ksenia Robbe
One of the founding principles of the PoSoCoMeS group has been to consider transregional and global dimensions of post-socialist memory. The ambition to go beyond the traditional, and still often predominant, focus of post-socialist memory studies on single national contexts is reflected in the ‘Co’ for ‘comparative’ within the group’s title and, visually, in its logo setting post-socialism on a global scale. Questioning the habitual associations of ‘(post)socialism’ with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, this ‘revisionist’ map connects most of Europe and Asia, large parts of Africa, and several South American countries – these being only the areas of (former) state-supported socialism, i.e. not including the places where socialism existed in the form of movements or welfare state practices.
From the very beginnings of the group, this comparative and global ambition has been the most exciting aspect for me. In practice, however, it has often proved difficult to find experts working at the intersection of memory and post-socialism outside of Eastern Europe or Russia and who are interested in transregional dialogues; academic spaces that would welcome such intersections have also been scarce. Yet, as I look at the expanding geographies which are reflecting and theorizing ‘post-socialism’ in a variety of disciplines (from history to anthropology to literary studies), it seems that connecting these debates to developments in memory studies may generate an agenda for a new generation of scholars and a research (sub)field. In what follows, I share my thoughts on the reasons for the difficulties and the potential for dialogues around ‘post-socialism’ in memory studies. Continue reading “Post-Socialist Memory: Global Perspectives”
What is Post-Socialist Memory?
by Daria Khlevniuk
I’ve been asked to write a short blog entry on the definition of post-socialist memory. As one of the co-founders of the PoSoCoMeS group, I suppose it’s assumed that I should have some insights – perhaps even original ideas – on the topic. After all, the purpose of creating the group was to bring together people working on post-socialist memory. Yet, I must admit that I don’t have a clear or groundbreaking definition. Nor can I provide the specific definition that guided my co-founders (Mischa Gabowitsch and Ksenia Robbe) and me when we formed the group, partly because I don’t remember and partly because my thinking has evolved so much since then that I can’t pretend to adhere to the same logic. What I can offer, however, is a brief and somewhat rough sketch of what I find compelling about post-socialist memory today and how I envision it as an evolving field of study. Continue reading “What is Post-Socialist Memory?”