ABSTRACT
The problem of reconciliation after civil conflicts is receiving considerable attention within the humanities. This chapter examines the attempts of post-Soviet Russia to find paths for long-term reconciliation after the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922 that considerably influenced the country and its citizens. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, democratic changes in Russia provided an opportunity to close a “bloody century.” Indeed the Romanovs’ burial in St. Petersburg in 1998 sent a strong message that the country is willing to rethink its complex past and to come to terms with it. However, despite all the efforts, reconciliation process stalled. The annexation of the Crimea in 2014 and the current authorities’ attempts to reinterpret the country’s past have had an opposite effect—the society has become more antagonized and hostile.
