War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland
Given the recent trend toward the instrumentalization of memory of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) in Russian federal memory politics, this article examines regional features of this trend by assessing the transformations that occurred in the monumental GPW commemoration in the post-Soviet Murmansk re...
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Language: | English |
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University of California Press
2024
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 https://online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article-pdf/57/3/59/832758/cpcs.2024.2119031.pdf |
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crunicaliforniap:10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 2024-09-09T19:26:16+00:00 War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland Spirin, Artem 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 https://online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article-pdf/57/3/59/832758/cpcs.2024.2119031.pdf en eng University of California Press http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Communist and Post-Communist Studies volume 57, issue 3, page 59-80 ISSN 0967-067X 1873-6920 journal-article 2024 crunicaliforniap https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 2024-08-29T04:20:37Z Given the recent trend toward the instrumentalization of memory of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) in Russian federal memory politics, this article examines regional features of this trend by assessing the transformations that occurred in the monumental GPW commemoration in the post-Soviet Murmansk region. The case study analyzes the process of creating war memorials dedicated to the Battle for Zapoliar’e, a Murmansk regional narrative of the Great Patriotic War, by observing new war memorials and activities of mnemonic actors initiating these memorials. The article sheds light on the vigorous commemorative activism pushed by a set of regional mnemonic actors who, although remaining loyal to the official patriotic state narrative of the Battle, tend to emphasize other aspects, particularly heroic or tragic, depending on their agendas. While veteran organizations and sometimes regional authorities promote the state-centric and triumphalist vision of the Battle, local poiskoviki activists, on the contrary, appeal to its tragic side, pointing out the importance of the personal remembrance of the fallen. The article concludes that, although the centralization and unification trends in Russian memory politics noticeably affect the regional domain, they are unlikely to fully explain the regional dynamics of developing the monumental media of war memory since such dynamics are set primarily by grassroots activists. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of California Press Arctic Murmansk Communist and Post-Communist Studies 1 22 |
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Open Polar |
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University of California Press |
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crunicaliforniap |
language |
English |
description |
Given the recent trend toward the instrumentalization of memory of the Great Patriotic War (GPW) in Russian federal memory politics, this article examines regional features of this trend by assessing the transformations that occurred in the monumental GPW commemoration in the post-Soviet Murmansk region. The case study analyzes the process of creating war memorials dedicated to the Battle for Zapoliar’e, a Murmansk regional narrative of the Great Patriotic War, by observing new war memorials and activities of mnemonic actors initiating these memorials. The article sheds light on the vigorous commemorative activism pushed by a set of regional mnemonic actors who, although remaining loyal to the official patriotic state narrative of the Battle, tend to emphasize other aspects, particularly heroic or tragic, depending on their agendas. While veteran organizations and sometimes regional authorities promote the state-centric and triumphalist vision of the Battle, local poiskoviki activists, on the contrary, appeal to its tragic side, pointing out the importance of the personal remembrance of the fallen. The article concludes that, although the centralization and unification trends in Russian memory politics noticeably affect the regional domain, they are unlikely to fully explain the regional dynamics of developing the monumental media of war memory since such dynamics are set primarily by grassroots activists. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Spirin, Artem |
spellingShingle |
Spirin, Artem War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
author_facet |
Spirin, Artem |
author_sort |
Spirin, Artem |
title |
War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
title_short |
War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
title_full |
War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
title_fullStr |
War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
title_full_unstemmed |
War Memories, Monumental Activism, and Regional Identity in the Arctic Borderland |
title_sort |
war memories, monumental activism, and regional identity in the arctic borderland |
publisher |
University of California Press |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 https://online.ucpress.edu/cpcs/article-pdf/57/3/59/832758/cpcs.2024.2119031.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Murmansk |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Murmansk |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Communist and Post-Communist Studies volume 57, issue 3, page 59-80 ISSN 0967-067X 1873-6920 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2024.2119031 |
container_title |
Communist and Post-Communist Studies |
container_start_page |
1 |
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22 |
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1809895927429726208 |