30 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Abstracts

Promise of the Past: Politics of History and Memory Cultures in post-Soviet Russia

Ekatarina Makhotina, University of Bonn

The acceleration of time and scepticism towards the future are universal phenomenons of our society. The past is longing for more attention than the future in several spheres of public life: in politics, culture, public activities. Therefore, political actors, who give the past its meaning and construct the narrative, are of enormous significance. This is the case in Russia, where the politics of history have become extremely important over the last decade. There are considerable investments in the evolvement of “sites of memory,” areas of cultural heritage and public re-enactments. Most of all, the memory of the Second World War, which has been standing still in unique continuity since Soviet times, is still the crucial point for the politics of collective identity in Russia. The politics of history aims at preserving the traditional, heroic meaning of war. A counter-example is the politics of ambivalence regarding the Stalinist repressions. Here, a definite conviction of the Stalinist regime is still lacking, although there are state-sponsored memorials for Stalin’s victims and Gulag museums. 

In Russian society there is also a need for the promises of the (lost) past. Except for the practical nostalgia for “stable” Soviet times, there is a considerable amount of social practices actualizing the past, like “The Immortal Regiment” for the heroes and “The Return of the Names” for Stalin’s victims. The practices of re-enactment, memorial pilgrimage, restoration of the declined Soviet architecture create new meaning of historical events. In the case of commemoration of victims of Stalin’s terror it can even gain a critical potential against the contemporary political power in the Kremlin. Nevertheless: up until now the discourse on the victims of state terror in Soviet times is still more common in the aesthetics and language of the Russian orthodox religious tradition.

Litteratur och minne: 'Die Wende', Tysklands återförening och författarna tretti år efter murens fall

Frank Thomas Grub, Uppsala Universitet

1989 verkade de flesta tyskar i öst och väst ha accepterat den tyska delningen i två stater som en normalitet. ”Die Wende”, murens fall och (åter-)föreningen kom alltså oförutsedda och överraskande för människorna på båda sidor av muren. 

Händelserna kring “die Wende” och (åter-)föreningen, men framför allt deras konsekvenser har lämnat djupa spår i politik, ekonomi och samhälle, men även i litteraturen. Föredraget handlar om dessa spår och om litteraturens och författarnas roll i samband med det historiska minnet.

Det kommer att presenteras texter av alla genrer samt autobiografiska texter från 1989 till idag.