ABSTRACT
The system of public holidays in the Russian Federation reflects the indecision of its political leadership concerning the alternatives of empire and of nation-state. Obviously, Putin is of the opinion that he can both eat his cake and have it – maintaining an ethnically homogeneous state of the Russian nation in domestic politics, while also establishing a post-Soviet empire of what the 1993 constitution calls the “multinational people of the Russian Federation” in the eyes of the outside world. In the politics of history, this leads to a hybridisation of Soviet and pre-Soviet, Russian national and decidedly international, religious and secular elements. And with regard to the top red-letter day, 9 May, there always remains an elephant in the room: Stalin. Whereas the prestigious Russian NGO Memorial proposed to celebrate “victory without Stalin” (pobeda bez Stalina), albeit against massive protest by Stalin nostalgics, post-communists and right-wing nationalists, the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea has seen Putin opt for a version of “victory with considerable impact by Stalin”. Accordingly, the military parade on “Victory Day” 2015 included portraits of the dictator for the first time since the mid-1950s.
