The Politics of Memory in the Regions of Russia and the World

On 9 December 2025, as part of the 7th International Conference “The World Majority and the West amid Geo-economic and Civilizational Transformations,” a session of the section “The Politics of Memory in the Regions of Russia and the World” was held. The session was organized by the School of Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University, in partnership with the Institute of Regional Historic Studies of the Faculty of Humanities, HSE University, and the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences RAS (INION). 

The session was moderated by Daniil Anikin (INION), Ekaterina Boltunova (HSE University), and Anastasia Ponamareva (INION).

Presentations were delivered by:

• Alexey Miller (European University at St. Petersburg and INION) on “The Past in Discussions about Ukraine's Regional Administrative Divisions”;
• Anastasiya Ponamareva (INION) on “The Evolution of the Politics of Memory in the Republic of Belarus: A Master Class in Strategic Flexibility”;
• Evgeniya Goryushina (HSE University) on “Memorial Regimes after the War: The Transformation of Memory Politics in Azerbaijan”;
• Yuri Akimov (St. Petersburg State University) on “With the Motto ‘I Remember’ on the Coat of Arms: The Politics of Memory and the Process of Building a Quebec Nation”;
• Ekaterina Boltunova (HSE University) on “Memory of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945 in the Russian Far East”;
• Varvara Gatskovskaya (HSE University) on “EU Memory Policy: A Problem of Regional Dimension”;
• Daniil Rastegaev (INION) on “World War II and Conflicts of Memory: The Case of Serbia and Croatia”;
• Galina Egorova (HSE University) on “Anniversaries as a Tool of Regional Memory Politics: Representations and Self-Positioning of Russian Cities in the 2020s (Cases of Nizhny Novgorod and Suzdal)”;
• Natalia Beresneva (HSE University) on “Memory of the Wars of the Russian Empire and the USSR in Regional Textbooks of the Urals”;
• Evgeny Krestyanikov (HSE University) on “The Tomsk Pogrom of 1905 in the Politics of Memory”.

The discussion focused on the use of historical memory to address issues in domestic and international politics. A number of cases of memory politics in countries and regions around the world, particularly in the post-Soviet space, were analyzed. Various ways in which memory politics can influence the dynamics of political conflict escalation and post-conflict resolution were examined, as well as the use of the historical past within the functioning of supranational political institutions.