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Cultural Heritage in Russian Public Memorial Practices
The key participants of the public discussions about the past in contemporary Russia are both official state institutions and public memorial and urban projects. The concept of cultural heritage has a defining role in their discourses and practices. Though participants appeal to the international definitions of cultural heritage adopted by UNESCO, their interpretations and uses vary. It impedes public discussions about the past in general and heritage in particular in Russia.
We analyse how the concept of cultural heritage is interpreted and used by both official state institutions and public memorial projects.Our investigation lies at the intersection of two research programs: public history and critical heritage studies. The public history approaches allow us to study the problem of “shared authority,” which is extremely important for the study of non-state public forms of talking about the past and heritage.