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Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia

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Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia This book examines the societal dynamics of memory politics in Russia. Since Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian central government has increas- ingly actively employed cultural memory to claim political legitimacy and dis- credit all forms of political opposition. The rhetorical use of the past has become adefining characteristic of Russian politics, creating a historical foundation for the regime’s emphasis on a strong state and centralised leadership. Exploring memory politics, this book analyses a wide range of actors, from the central government and the Russian Orthodox Church to filmmaker and cultural heavyweight Nikita Mikhalkov and radical thinkers such as Alek- sandr Dugin. In addition, in view of the steady decline in media freedom since 2000, it critically examines the role of cinema and television in shaping and spreading these narratives. Thus, this book aims to promote a better understanding of the various means through which the Russian government practices its memory politics (e.g. the role of state media) while at the same time pointing to the existence of alternative and critical voices and criticism that existing studies tend to overlook. Contributing to current debates in the field of memory studies and of cur- rent affairs in Russia and Eastern Europe, this book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of Russian studies, cultural memory studies, nationalism and national identity, political communication, film, television and media studies. Mariëlle Wijermars is a postdoctoral researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Studies in Contemporary Russia Series Editor: Markku Kivinen Studies in Contemporary Russia is a series of cutting-edge, contemporary studies. These monographs, joint publications and edited volumes branch out into various disciplines, innovatively combining research methods and theories to approach the core questions of Russian modernisation; how do the dynamics of resources and rules affect the Russian economy and what are the prospects and needs of diversification? What is the impact of the changing state-society relationship? How does the emerging welfare regime work? What is the role of Russia in contemporary international relations? How should we understand the present Russian political system? What is the philosophical background of modernisation as a whole and its Russian version in particular? The variety of opinions on these issues is vast. Some see increasingly less difference between contemporary Russia and the Soviet Union while, at the other extreme, prominent experts regard Russia as a ‘more or less’ normal European state. At the same time new variants of modernisation are espoused as a result of Russian membership of the global BRIC powers. Combining aspects of Western and Soviet modernisation with some anti-modern or tradi- tional tendencies the Russian case is ideal for probing deeper into the evolving nature of modernisation. Which of the available courses Russia will follow remains an open question, but these trajectories provide the alternatives avail- able for discussion in this ground-breaking and authoritative series. The editor and the editorial board of the series represent the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies: Choices of Russian Modernisation. For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ series/ASHSER-1421 Russia and the EU Spaces of Interaction Edited by Thomas Hoffmann and Andrey Makarychev Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia Television, Cinema and the State Mariëlle Wijermars Memory Politics in Contemporary Russia Television, cinema and the state Mariëlle Wijermars First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Mariëlle Wijermars The right of Mariëlle Wijermars to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 9781138543195 (hbk) ISBN: 9781351007207 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction 1 Memory politics beyond the Kremlin walls 2 Governmental memory politics in post-Soviet Russia 5 History on the small and big screens 9 Methodology 13 2 Memory politics and the remediation of cultural memory 19 Cultural memory and political legitimacy 19 The politics of memory: conformity and contestation 21 Memory politics on screen 23 Remediation 30 Case studies 39 3 Petr Stolypin: The making of a cultural memory 41 Stolypin in the Russian historical and political imagination 41 Institutionalisation of Stolypin’s memory 44 Film and television analyses 51 Petr Stolypin … The Undrawn Lessons (2006) 52 The Name is Russia (2008): Petr Stolypin 65 Petr Stolypin: A Shot at Russia (2012) 72 Conclusion 79 4 Aleksandr Nevskii: The saviour of Orthodox civilisation 84 Nevskii in the Russian historical and political imagination 84 A beacon of Orthodox morality in the face of globalisation 88 The Russian Orthodox Church and cultural memory 91 Nevskii as the founding father of Russian foreign policy 97 vi Contents Film and television analyses 100 Aleksandr: The Neva Battle (2008) 100 The Name is Russia (2008) 107 Conclusion 118 5 The Time of Troubles: The cyclical return of chaos 122 The Time of Troubles in the Russian political and cultural imagination 124 Institutionalisation of the memory: the Day of National Unity 129 Memory chains 136 Film and television analyses 140 TV documentaries on the occasion of the Day of National Unity (2005–2006) 140 1612: Chronicles of the Time of Troubles (2007) 148 Boris Godunov (2011) 153 Conclusion 159 6 Ivan the Terrible and the Oprichnina: Subversive histories 164 Ivan the Terrible in the Russian historical and political imagination 165 The concept of ‘Novaia Oprichnina’ 171 Ivan the Terrible and Orthodox fundamentalism 179 Film and television analyses 183 Ivan the Terrible (2009) 184 Tsar (2009) 192 The Trial of Time (2010) 199 Conclusion 204 7 The Trial of Time 207 The trial of The Trial of Time 209 Cancellation and reappearance 212 8 Conclusion 217 List of interviews 227 References 229 Index 249 Acknowledgements There are many people who, in various ways, helped me complete this study and to whom I owe my heartfelt gratitude. First of all, to Sander Brouwer, whose contribution to the project from initial idea to completion has been invaluable. Thank you, Sander, for your friendship and your unfailing trust in my potential. I also wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Joost van Baak for his sincere enthusiasm for the project and encouraging nudges along the way. Finally, a thank you is in order to Boris Noordenbos for his feedback on the initial project idea. The research for this book was conducted at the Uni- versity of Groningen, where the first version of the book was completed in the summer of 2016. I am grateful to the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki for the institutional support I have received while preparing the manuscript for publication. With regard to my research stay in Moscow, I wish to thank Galina Zver- eva for hosting me at the Russian State University for the Humanities and for offering me advice. I owe gratitude to Andrei Shemiakin, Il’ia Kukulin and Ekaterina Lapina-Kratasiuk who consulted with me during my stay. I also wish to thank Marina Frolova-Walker for offering me a home-away-from-home in Moscow as well as first-class companionship. A special thank you goes to Natal’ia Iakovlevna Venzher for sharing her extensive knowledge of Russian cinema and television production and state financing, for allowing me to make use of her personal database of television broadcasts and, above all, for her heartfelt hospitality. To the members of the Foreign Historians Club (you know who you are) who provided me with company during the long winter months. Finally, I wish to thank my interviewees as well as the other people I met during my stay in Moscow for their kindness, generosity and trust. Despite increasing socio-political tensions and evident pressure on those working in cinema and television at the time when I did my fieldwork in autumn and winter 2014, they welcomed me with incredible openness and generosity. Earlier versions of several chapters were presented at conferences and workshops in Belgium, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States; I wish to thank the audiences and dis- cussants for their valuable remarks and encouragements. A personal thank you is in order to Otto Boele, Graeme Gill and Yngvar Steinholt for reading viii Acknowledgements and commenting on parts of the manuscript. To Hanna Stähle, for com- menting on parts of the manuscript and advising me on translation mat- ters. And to Kseniia Rovinskaia for helping me wrestle with untranslatable Russian slang. Finally, a very special thank you goes out to Niké Wentholt, the best office mate in the world, who generously offered me the key to her vacant home for the final stretch of the research for this book. And, of course, to Richard, for keeping me sane along the way and for always pushing me to dream bigger. Part of my research was facilitated by a European Union Erasmus Mundus Action 2: Aurora mobility grant, which allowed me to spend six months as a visiting doctoral researcher at the Russian State University for the Huma- nities in Moscow.
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