ABSTRACT
Russian imperial and Soviet legacies still haunt many nations, and in many places elements of the Soviet and even Tsarist legacy are live political issues. This chapter provides an insight into the Circassian case that clearly demonstrates how the colonial history has been transformed into a neocolonial present. It discusses how Circassians, the indigenous people of the Northwestern Caucasus, are still reliving all sorts of trauma associated with Russian/Soviet imperialism and attempt to deconstruct the colonial discourse that marginalized or completely silenced them by falsifying or denying them their history and identity. Only in the post-Soviet period, Circassians started the process of reconnecting, remembering, reimagining, and reconceptualizing their identities. But, the struggle for historical truth in the North Caucasus is still ongoing and manifests itself in a clash between the official Soviet/Russian version of history that stubbornly insists on the old imperialist myths and the “counter memory” of Circassians who started to actively object to the ideologically motivated falsifications of their history. The subversive counter-discourse that undermines the imperial legacy is most strongly pronounced in literature and art of contemporary Circassian women-writers, artists, and activists.
