Shifting Remembrance: On-Site and Digital Memorialization of Soviet Mass Repression in the Wake of COVID-19

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Pandemic Fieldwork: Doing Fieldwork During a Pandemic" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Many heritage sites in contemporary Russia that are connected to Soviet mass repression lack large permanent memorials, if there is tangible memorialization on-site at all. Instead, many such places become sites meaningful ephemeral encounters, encompassing annual and semi-annual mass gatherings as well as individual personal interactions with the site itself. This paper will examine how the pandemic has changed encounters with and at a network of Moscow ‘dark heritage’ sites of Soviet repression, focusing on the places of violence themselves as well as the perception and dissemination of memories these sites are meant to preserve. Digital platforms and networks have already been used to disseminate historical, memorial, and political information that risk official censure in other media; thus, this paper will also examine how the pandemic has changed stakeholder, activist, and government attitudes towards digital memorialization of Soviet repression and what these changes mean for the heritagization of mass repression.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Pandemic Fieldwork: Doing Fieldwork During a Pandemic   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology