Russia’s religion of victory

Collective memory should never be seen as a neutral reservoir of memories. Rather, it is simply a construct which is constantly shaped by choices, interpretations and reinterpretations of history. Forgetting, in this sense, is not simply a flaw in the mechanics of memory but an essential feature of it. By discarding what is deemed excess, forgetting allows for the emergence of patterns and generalizations that give meaning to a community’s shared experience. In shaping historical memory, forgetting is frequently the rule, while remembering becomes the exception. This basic anthropological and intellectual trait of human cognition has, in turn, long been subject to political manipulation. As a result, those who are in power continually search to influence not only what is remembered, but besides how it is remembered.

In this process, the manipulation of facts is 1 of the tools. On the 1 hand, it involves spreading falsehoods and offering interpretations that distort the narrative. On the other, it means deliberate concealment – erasing inconvenient episodes from collective memory. While specified mechanisms can be found, to varying degrees, in democratic systems, they are especially characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, where a monopoly over historical memory frequently translates into a monopoly over fact itself.

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