The past, no less than the present, is contested territory: this is the theme of the present double issue of the Russian Social Science Review. The selections all touch on the topic of history and historical consciousness today in relation to scholarship and memory, politics and geopolitics, ideology and propaganda, identity and enmity, nostalgia and resentment.
A thread running through the issue is World War II—the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia. Although the last generation to have personal memories of that time is rapidly passing from the scene, the searing experience of the war is increasingly central to the construction of post-Soviet Russia’s national identity and the stark framing of its relations with neighboring states, and the West more generally, in terms of war against fascism. The Soviet Union’s ultimate victory under the leadership of Josef Stalin has become a touchstone for the authoritarian leadership of Vladimir Putin and his efforts to make Russia “great” again.
Our last two selections bring us closer to the ground, with an article on the reorientation of museums to local history and another with reflections on the passage of time in a Cossack village.
—P.A.K.