Memory Field: Design and Fight of Narratives

The policy of memory is a strategy of interaction between power institutions and social groups in the public space on issues of national history. Images of social memory are used by actors to create narratives – complete, plot-complete narratives of past events. Social groups declare their identity and the right to their own interpretations of historical events through the creation of narratives. The clash of alternative interpretations of events leads to a mnemonic conflict, which is the reflection of the political struggle for the right to memory. Dialogue and mediation are tools of memory policy. The logic of this policy implies reconciliation and solidarity of all social groups that have survived a single historical fate, but have a differentiated social memory. People remember how these events reflected on the fate of their families. The methodology of researching the politics of memory is based on sociocultural and historical-comparative analysis, combines phenomenological and constructivist approaches. In analyzing the problem, the article uses the theory of attraction fields of P. Bourdieu. Such a methodological construction helps to study the field structures of social memory, the specifics of constructing a narrative, and the possibilities of a political solution to the mnemonic problems of the nation. The policy of memory is presented as a tool for managing public consciousness in the mental structures of the community. It is contradictory, ideologically determined, involves the collision or coordination of alternative narratives. The structures of power that determine the rules of the “game” on the “memory field”, articulating “official narratives”, have the right to decide on the priority strategy of memory policy. But the influence on the formation of memory policy strategies is possessed by any social groups representing “unofficial” narratives. The construction of a memory policy is based on strategies — targeted, sequential actions that assert in the collective consciousness the version of national history as dominant. Strategies are embodied in variable scenarios - tactical measures of a situational nature that determine the moves and placement of acting characters for the implementation of strategies. The authors identified the main types of memory policy strategies: reproach (realization of a “martyrdom”), oblivion of the tragic past (crowding out facts contradicting “heroic” interpretations from official narratives), conflict of interpretations (contradicting “official” and “unofficial” narratives), dialogue (discourse and coordination of interpretations) with the relevant scenarios of the development of the political situation - the chanting of “historical greatness”, silence, repentance, contradictory narratives, reconciliation and solidarity . The result of the analysis of the problems of social memory in Russia are the theoretical constructs of the narrative confrontation with the following options for scenario solutions that formulate memory policy strategies.