Politics of History and Memory in Shaping National Identity

• In Event: Contested Legacies of the Past and Politics of Memory in the Baltic Region

Abstract

This paper outlines the politics of memory and history in shaping national identity. Baltic states restored independence in 1991 and were enthroned with the task of conceptualising an independent national identity, political community and identification of the nation with the state. They used old symbols and collective memories to form identity. They reinterpreted history, by and large, through conflating Soviet and Russian identities. A new public discourse was constructed about the Soviet and Nazi periods, symbolic of the binary of Russian otherness and European sameness. In this hegemonic discourse, the core elements of national identity included the Baltic states’ victimhood memories, vulnerability, insecurity, fear of Russia’s expansionist ambitions and the imperative of developing security relations with the West.

Author

• Usha K B, Jawaharlal Nehru U (India)