ABSTRACT
The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991created a dilemma for the post-communist authorities of what they were to do about Soviet symbolic discourse. This was central to the task of regime legitimation. The post-Soviet regime sought to eliminate the multivocalism of symbols by encapsulating them in a new cultural-historical narrative. This involved a coming to grips with the Soviet period, and has been immensely complicated by the nature of memory in post-Soviet Russia. The result is the continuing ambiguity, and multivocalism, of symbols in contemporary Russia. This experience is a common one for new regimes of all types, but especially those that come to power as a result of revolution.
