ABSTRACT
Оп 5 Мау 2011, the comment thread of the popular Russian blog drugoi featured а comment Ьу а user who called her-or himself asurra. This user had selected as her or his userpic ап image of а rather ungraceful Simpson-like cartoon figиre dressed in а bright orange bear costume. "The authorities in Russia are shit," asurra wrote in response to а politically tinged post Ьу the blog host, "the police are shit. [World War П-ЕR] [v]eterans are heroes(l теап it) [sic-ER]. Oh, well and compatriots who have close connections with the West through some official documents are also heroes!"l
This chapter explores how web-mediated memory is evolving in Russia-and more specifically, how, in Russian digital realms, the language ofmemory develops. Embedding this langиage within the rapidly expanding transnational "digitalmemories" discourse, the pages below тар both the prime locations and the core features of Russia's оnliпе langиage of memory. In doing so, they рау special attention to оnliпе commemorations of World War П-whiсh ranks among recent Russian history's most traumatic events-and ofits veterans.2
