ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Moscow’s motives for its major revision of Russian politics of memory – an endeavour that it understands as the battle for historical memory to allow better control of the present. It analyses several contemporary case studies of Russia’s revised historical narratives, including the Polish operation, which addressed accusations and blames against Poland for initiating the World War II in collaboration with the Third Reich. The Great Victory over Nazi Germany serves as a foundation of the new Russian political identity; it has bound national self-identification with cultural consolidation to lay the groundwork for a new Russian patriotism. This victory over Nazi Germany is exempted from any form of Soviet responsibility for collaboration with the Third Reich or the subsequential territorial conquests in Europe and incorporation of approximately one-half of the pre-war Polish territory and annihilation of the Polish statehood. The new narrative is utilised by President Vladimir Putin to legitimise the Russian quest for recognition as a world superpower and one of the leaders of the global order. The dynamic definition of the ‛enemy’ is an essential aspect of these politics of memory, which serves to consolidate society around its leader.
