A scholarly journal and news magazine. September 2014. Vol. VII:2–3. From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. Interview: On Putin’s third presidency BALTIC BALTIC balticworlds.com WORLDS WORLDS balticworlds.com The reopening of the Bolshoi Theater Religiosity & secularization Discourses of identity & nation building The concept of market in media Creating the ideal citizen in the postwar era Special section Nation-building for Modernization a new Russian generation in Russia Baltic Worlds’ special section Illustration: Ragni Svensson Shared sorrows The politics of memory also in this issue Illustration: Karin Sunvisson ISLAMOPHOBIA IN POLAND / GENOCIDE IN ARMENIA / FISHERIES IN POMERANIA / SHORTWAVE LISTENING Sponsored by the Foundation contents 3 BALTIC for Baltic and East European Studies WORLDSbalticworlds.com in this issue colophon Baltic Worlds is a scholarly journal and news magazine editorial published by Södertörn University and sponsored by the Foundation for Baltic and Perceiving the “Other” East European Studies. Editor-in-chief here is a thin, unpleasantly adjustable more, while demonstrating a fear of ‘the other’, Ninna Mörner line tracing out the degree of targeted they regarded the Tatars as ‘us’ and the need for Language Editor violations accepted in a society once a place to pray as an obvious one.” Brian Manning Delaney a group of people, or a person, is cat- The opposition to the construction of a Publisher BALTIC WORLDS egorized as the “Other”, and thus deprived of mosque in Warsaw has obscure allies: far-right balticworlds.com Joakim Ekman T The reopening of the Bolshoi Theater Religiosity & secularization Discourses of identity & nation building the status of equal dignity. groups, liberals, women’s rights activists, and features The concept of Editorial advisory board market in media Andrea Pető, a Hungarian historian, uncov- representatives of the Catholic Church’s pro-life Modernization in 4 Memorialization of the Holocaust. The theme Sari Autio-Sarasmo, Aleksanteri 45 Modernization in Russia. ers the layers of shame, silence, and guilt — and movement. “Us” is sometimes an astonishingly the postwar era Polish film Aftermath and contemporary Institute, Helsinki, Li Bennich- Cultural practices and Modernization also of ignorance, reluctance, and denial — that broad concept. Hungary, Andrea Pető. in Russia Björkman, Uppsala University, Baltic Worlds’ special section discourses. Guest editor Illustration: Ragni Svensson surround the memorialization of the Holocaust. We also have a report from a young research- Like many other modern 22 Nation-building in Russia. Reflections from Joakim Ekman, CBEES, Sanna Turoma. She brings up difficulties in speaking about er, Kristiina Silvan, on her observations as a states, both the Soviet Selig, NGO Youth Forum, Kristiina Silvan. Monica Hammer, CBEES, Lars the traumatic past in the context of the politics participant at the nationally organized camp Union, with its authoritarian so- commentaries peer-reviewed essays Johannsen, University of Aarhus, of memory. Who is entitled to, and invited to, Seliger All-Russia Youth Forum, which gathers cialism, and Sweden, with its so- , Ann-Cathrine Jungar, CBEES, 9 The Armenian Genocide. One hundred 48 T he reopening of the Bolshoi Theater remember the Holocaust? If we restrict the re- tens of thousands of young Russians every year. cial democracy, strived to shape Thomas Lundén, Chair, CBEES, “ years later, David Gaunt. Irina Kotkina. membrance to the victims only, or their descen- “In Seliger, I was able to peer into the core of their citizens’ lives for the better. , Elina Kahla. Jens E. Olesen, University of 12 Islamophobia in Poland. Opposition to 56 Civil religion in Russia dants, we will never learn to understand the contemporary Russian nation-building.” Both states considered it their Greifswald, Barbara Törnquist- the mosque: unexpected bedfellows. Kasia 65 D iscourses of nation-building, Ilya roles played by everyone, indeed all of us, she According to Silvan, the youth at Seliger duty actively to plan, organize, Plewa, Lund University Narkowicz. Kalinin. argues. We need to make the process of dehu- regarded the West as “the Other”: “Alienation, and control housing.” Page 37 75 T he concept of the market in the media, Proofreading manization of the “Other” visible and show that suspicion, and even loathing were among the interview Katja Lehtisaari. Brendan B. Humphreys, Tony its significance goes far beyond those directly feelings the Seliger youth held for ‘the West’.” 14 Olga Kryshtanovskaya. Russia’s political Crawford dehumanized. How else could we make the In an interview with Ilja Viktorov, the Russian elite during Putin’s third presidency, Ilja Layout world a better place? she asks. researcher Olga Kryshtanovskaya discusses Rus- Viktorov. stories Sara Bergfors, Lena Fredriksson, In 2015, it will have been one hundred years sian political elites and their role in the political peer-reviewed essays 83 Art & ownership. The deeds and doings of Vera Hovne, Serpentin Media since the Armenian genocide took place. David process in Russia. According to Kryshtanovs- art collector Peter Ludwig, Margaret Tali. Illustrators 27 Blogs in Russia. Journalists use blogging as 90 Tuning East. Shortwave listening during the Karin Sunvisson, Ragni Svensson Gaunt gives an overview of how the widespread kaya, a new class of rich people is emerging, a a tool of self-expression, Elena Johansson. Armenian diaspora continually bears witness hereditary aristocracy which has yet to be legiti- Cold War, Thomas Lundén. Subscription 37 Housing Policies. Comparing Soviet Estonia Sofia Barlind to the genocide of 1915, and to the enormity of mized in the Russian collective consciousness. and Sweden in the postwar era, Jenny lecture the trauma: the massacre, the deportations, Printed by East-West relations Björkman and Johan Eellend. 92 The Golden Age of Pomerania. On the and, ultimately, the denial to this day by Turkey SANNA TUROMA IS the guest editor of the section Elanders Sverige AB during the Cold War organization of medieval fishing, Haik that these violations ever occurred. The memo- Modernization in Russia. Cultural practices and reports Printed issue: ISSN 2000-2955 Porada. rialization of the Armenian genocide is often discourses. She presents four peer-reviewed Ludwig’s interest in the 87 Translating Russian literature. Cultural Online issue: ISSN 2001-7308 described as an Armenian wound that can never articles that “address the choices and challenges Eastern Bloc began in his exchange during the Cold War, Sara Feldman. Contact Baltic Worlds heal. It is regarded as a matter specifically Arme- Russian culture and the relevant players face stomping grounds in Germany, 89 Bahktin goes international. Carnevalesque at [email protected] nian, and the remembrance is not shared, but in the post-Soviet era, an era characterized by where he started buying and culture and art, Charlotte Bydler. instead becomes itself a marker of “otherness”. post-industrial globalization, neoliberal poli- “showing art from the GDR. Lo- Islamophobia in Poland is addressed in a cies, Western-style consumerism, and the rise of cally, in Germany, this was very commentary by Kaisa Narkowicz. Her piece cultural pluralism and transnational identities”. controversial. The collector’s reveals the complexity of the “othering” of This special section was realized under the path to the Soviet Union was ESSAYS have been subject to a double-blind peer review by at least two independent specialists. A peer- Muslims in Poland. “Most of the people I spoke auspices of the Academy of Finland Center of smoothed towards the end of reviewed article published in BW will generate one publication point, for the authors and their institutions to who are skeptical of Islam and Muslims are Excellence at the Aleksanteri Institute, Univer- 1970s by the Bonn-based Soviet using the Norwegian bibliometric register (DHB). All scholarly essays in BW can be found in EBSCO as well at the same time open and friendly towards the sity of Helsinki. ≈ ambassador to West Germany, as DOAJ. More information about the peer review system is available at the website and in the Style Guide indigenous Polish Muslims, the Tatars. Further- Ninna Mörner Vladimir Semyonov.” Page 83 for Contributors and Reviewers’ Guidelines. What you read in the footers is the voice of the editor. Not that of the authors. In this issue we have contributions from 18 scholars from 8 countries; 12 of the contributors are women. 4 feature feature 5 / TT / euters / R / ndrews A eter : P : hoto P MEMORALIZATION OF THE HOLOCAUST IN THE POLISH FILM AFTERMATH AND IN CONTEMPORARY HUNGARY Former prisoners arrive to lay wreaths and flowers at the “death wall” of the Auschwitz concentration camp on International Holocaust Remem- by Andrea Pető brance Day. he Polish filmAftermath (2012), directed by Władysław cally — the well of the Catholic parish church. One of the broth- the vulgar language of medieval anti-Semitism. Symbolically, with the outside world, the villagers had been able to use com- Pasikowski, discusses — with pictures and references ers has never left Poland and runs a small farm, while the other, the Star of David is tied to the gate of the brothers’ house, thus munist laws to bury their secret even deeper. Evidently, the situa- from the Old Testament — the guilt of Polish peasants having emigrated in 1981, returns to the village when he hears branding them “Other” too. Using premodern language and bas- tion in Hungary, home to Central Europe’s largest Jewish survivor for the murder of the Jewish inhabitants of their village about his brother’s “odd” behavior. The conflict in the village ing their actions on morality, the brothers then proceed to seek community, is even more complicated. While silence and forget- in 1939. In the film, two brothers from the village seek to discover arises when the first brother begins to move the tombstones from out the mass grave of the Jews. They do not use the language of ting meant, for many, abandoning one’s Jewish identity, among the secret, despite being warned against doing so.