From Russia, with Memories

Roundtable Osteuropa

With Félix Krawatzek, Hakob Matevosyan and Johanna Mogwitz

The way Russia has employed historical references to justify the war against Ukraine has brought conceptions of history once more into the focus of the general public. With these narratives, the Russian state is also addressing Russian speakers beyond its own borders. Still, we know very little about the receiving side of memory politics. In this podcast episode, Félix Krawatzek and Hakob Matevosyan introduce their new research project, which takes a look at how memory is transmitted from one generation to the next in Russian speaking communities abroad. Moving Russia(ns): Intergenerational Transmission of Memories Abroad and at Home, or MoveMeRU for short, is a five year research project funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon Europe framework programme. (Music: “Complete” by Modul is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0-License.)

Speakers:

Félix Krawatzek (ZOiS): https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/about-us/staff/dr-felix-krawatzek

Hakob Matevosyan (ZOiS): https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/about-us/staff/dr-hakob-matevosyan

Johanna Mogwitz (ZOiS): https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/about-us/staff/johanna-mogwitz

Find out more about the MoveMeRU project: https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/research/externally-funded-projects/movemeru

Further reading:

Victory Day 2022: Memory at War, by Travis C. Frederick, ZOiS Spotlight 17/2022, https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/zois-spotlight/victory-day-2022-memory-at-war

Meet the Author | Nina Frieß and Félix Krawatzek, 'States put a lot of time and effort into shaping young people’s values’, 18/10/2022 https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/meet-the-author/states-put-a-lot-of-time-and-effort-into-shaping-young-peoples-values

Constitutional reform of 2020 Russia: Constitutional Reform as Both Safeguard and Risk by Gwendolyn Sasse: https://carnegieeurope.eu/2020/03/11/russia-constitutional-reform-as-both-safeguard-and-risk-pub-81301

Podcast episode with Caroline von Gall, Gwendolyn Sasse and Christian Schaich (in German): https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/podcast-roundtable-osteuropa/die-verfassungsreform-in-russland

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.

Chapter

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Why study historical memory abroad? (00:03:48)

3. Russia's historical narratives and their targets (00:05:40)

4. Memory and generational (dis)continuity in the social sciences (00:09:43)

5. Collecting data: surveys, focus goups and media analysis (00:14:50)

6. Intergenerational transmission in a polarized society (00:22:07)