Symbolism and the transformation of the national historical narrative in postsoviet Russia

Ch. 33. P. 377–387.

Olga Malinova

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia needed a new symbolism to provide a basis for renewed national identity and a vision of a common past and future. This chapter describes the major stages of evolution of the symbolic programme developed by the Russian state, with a special focus on transformations of the national historical narrative, meaning a shared template for describing the past of the nation in a way that “explains” its present and future. National consolidation in post-Soviet Russia was impeded by the ideological conflicts that had divided society. In the 2000s, the symbolism constructed in the 1990s was considerably revised. The evolution of the official historical narrative that now became the story of the “thousand-year-long” Great Russian state was the most visible manifestation of this revision. During the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, this tendency towards deliberate eclecticism was amplified as both President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin continued to express their views.

Keywords: политика памяти, symbolic politics, символическая политика, politics of memory, official historical narrative, официальный исторический нарратив

In book

Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society

Routledge, 2022.