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Introduction
This monograph has been written based on the results of a joint Russian-Polish project devoted to problems of social memory in various socio-cultural contexts, and it deals with the modern politics of memory in Eastern European countries.In the book, two conceptual patterns intersect: concepts of social memory and concepts of war memory studies. The problematic nature of war memory is based on the principle of cross-cases: it follows logically that upon examining social memory, the authors address, first and foremost, the most traumatic moments of a national past – the memory of war. But while the Polish authors chose as their focal point several distinct events from World War II, the Russian sociologists fixed upon a closer and more local war – the Afghan war. Comparison of these two war discourses allows us to meaningfully deepen our comprehension of the mechanisms at work in the social institution of memory.