Public discourse in post-socialist countries has reached an alarming and continuously escalating state, particularly in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and repeated illegitimate elections in the Russian Federation (Council of Europe, 2024). In Russia, memory politics are being leveraged to bolster Vladimir Putin's regime, resulting in historical erasure and straining relations with other post-socialist nations. Notably impacted are narratives surrounding the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states and the portrayal of Soviet- era internal repressions from the 1920s to the 1990s. These events are addressed by several museums, including institutions in Lithuania, Latvia, and Russia. My dissertation consists of two parts – theoretical and empirical, and centers around the problem of preservation and development of memorial museums based on the places of atrocities of 20th century, specifically prisons used by the soviet-socialist regime for its support in Russia and two Baltic countries occupied by the Soviet Union: Latvia and Lithuania. There are three main case studies, which include the following museums: The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in Riga (Latvia), the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius (Lithuania), the Memorial Museum NKVD Investigation Prison in Tomsk (Russia); and one subcase – the Corner House in Riga (Latvia). Three out of four museums are based on the location of former KGB (or NKVD) prisons and represent different examples of museal work with traumatic past, but all four museums are important for my research. Inclusion of the cases from both victims and offenders will allow comprehending of more extensive image of work with historical memory. The research methodology will rely on the analyses of primary sources, comparative design of case studies and conduction of two expert interviews with representatives of the museums. Specific challenges, as well as advantages and disadvantages of the ethnographical research in the context of authoritarian state also will be addressed. The main objective of the research is to define and understand contemporary ways of development of memorial system in post- socialist countries and preservation of places of atrocities of socialist past on the basis of analysis of work of the chosen museums. The basic assumption is centered around the differences in approaches to representation of “dark heritage” of the Soviet past in museums which represent different sides of power balance. The research will focus on distinctive ways of representation of cultural trauma in the context of exhibition narratives in the above mentioned four museums. The conclusion highlights the core elements of the notion of multiperspectiveness that have been developed in the empirical part.
Evgeniya Kartashova (Thu,) studied this question.