Re-meme-bering pedagogies of Great Patriotic War: Time-shifting and Russian mnemonic imperialism on TikTok

In an era where digital platforms both shape and serve as arenas for performing contested historical memories, understanding how grassroots remembrance dynamics intersect with political influence is essential. This article explores the relationship between Russian state-driven and spontaneous forms of commemorating Victory Day within Russophone communities on TikTok, focusing on what Soviet historiography termed the “Great Patriotic War.” Combining digital methods with qualitative cultural analysis, the study examines a specific trend that first appeared in May 2021, in which users employ the same sonic hashtag – a song from a popular Soviet-era children’s show – to performatively engage in “time-shifting.” These videos draw morally charged analogies and contrasts between the Great Patriotic War past and the present or link Great Patriotic War memory to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The article introduces the concept of mnemonic imperialism to account for how participatory, seemingly playful formats can reproduce and stabilize imperial power relations through the naturalization of a Russia-centric Great Patriotic War narrative. Rather than treating these dynamics as a binary between state propaganda and user creativity, the article argues that mnemonic imperialism operates through an interplay of memetic templates, algorithmic amplification, affective soundscapes and embodied performances. Through close readings of TikTok videos combined with contextual cultural analysis, the article traces how historical memory is mediated through three interrelated modes of mnemonic pedagogy: the formation of patriotic identity, the performance of the suffering body and the construction of moral contrast through mythic temporal rupture.