Memory Makers

"History and memory are now at the heart of Russian political and popular culture. Memory Makers charts the policies, practices, and performances that form the Russian government's 'call to history', as a way of coalescing Russian identity around sanitized views of the past. Based on extremely timely and deeply researched case studies on Ukraine, Syria, and the West, Jade McGlynn explores how Russian politicians and a pro-Kremlin media have 'historically framed' the news, conflating current policies with past triumphs and traumas, shedding critical new light on the role of the highly influential Ministry of Culture and Russian Military Historical Society in constructing a narrative of Russian 'history' which can shape everyday citizen's perceptions of contemporary politics under Putin. Examining over 2000 articles, media broadcasts, and interviews with cultural producers, McGlynn demonstrates the vast scale of government initiatives to popularize patriotic history and realize its vision of the 'culturally conscious' Russian patriot. In doing so, she draws together developments, often seen as pathologically Russian, into comparison with global political and cultural trends"--