
Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine
The Memory at War project set out to expand the boundaries of memory studies by shifting the focus to post-socialist Eastern Europe. The ‘memory boom’ that has overtaken Western Europe and North America, at both a popular and scholarly level since the last decades of the twentieth century, has centred on West European memories of the Holocaust and Nazism. East European memories of the twentieth century, which differ sharply from their West European counterparts, have been relatively under studied.
Memory at War aimed to address this emerging division between West and East European memory. With a focus on three main target countries, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, the researchers:
- mapped and analysed the dynamics of cultural memory in the region
- developed new tools and concepts for understanding memory in Eastern Europe
- focused on the interplay between memory, identity and political developments more broadly in this region
- investigated and refined the field of memory studies itself, through the context of Eastern Europe
The project approached the subject from six innovative directions by:
- using a transnational perspective
- using a transdisciplinary approach
- using post-socialist digital memories
- collaborating within the humanities
- mapping, interpreting and debating events as they unfolded in real time
- challenging and refining the whole concept of memory studies in the Eastern European context
Dr Alexander Etkind
Project Leader
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom