Join PONARS Eurasia at George Washington University for a presentation by Prof. Ivan Kurilla of the European University at St. Petersburg. 

Kurilla's presentation will analyze the state of historical memory in Russia in relation to this year’s centennial anniversary of the Russian Revolution from both the informal and formal historical perspectives. The revolution is still present in Russia in the form of monuments and toponymy, and the Lenin Mausoleum at the center of Red Square. However, the Russian state has developed an anti-revolutionary ideology and will need to deal with the anniversary in complex ways—the Kremlin’s “foundational narrative” has been on WWII rather than 1917 to 1945. Kurilla will discuss two recent developments that have emerged. The first is the rapid growth of “grassroots” initiatives based on family memory and local history. The most famous is the “Immortal Regiment” that attracted millions of participants in the most recent Victory Day celebrations in Russia and abroad, with marchers holding aloft portraits of their family members who had fought in WWII. The second is a private legal suit in 2016 by Tomsk resident Denis Karagodin, who demanded that the Russian state officially recognize the murder of his great-grandfather by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) in 1938 and prosecute the murder as a criminal case. Kurilla will also discuss the current pressures and challenges facing professional historians.