Collective memories in the late Soviet Union

ENIdeas about a society's past, or collective memories, are integral to the social group and an important link between the individual and society. How are such ideas created, sustained and changed over time? I use survey data, gathered in the European republics of the Soviet Union in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993, to examine the collective memories of the recent past held by a cross-section of ordinary people, and to analyze changes in judgments of important events after transformative events in Russia and Lithuania. Previous research found that people tend to judge events that occurred during their own youth as more important than do people of other ages, supporting Karl Mannheim's argument that adolescence and young adulthood constitute a formative period critical for a cohort's impressions of history. I too find that there are generational differences in reports of important events in the late Soviet Union, and that these generational differences generally persist through political and social change. I also find that collective memory is shaped by location, by ethnicity, and by state-sponsored versions of the past. Thus, for example, Lithuanians and west Ukrainians of all ages, who live in regions that were separate from the Soviet Union until World War II, recall suffering under the Soviet system rather than the achievements of the state.In contrast, in Russia the memories of people of all ages and educational levels are dominated by World War II, and the Stalinist past is largely forgotten, reflecting official, pre-glasnost versions of history. The importance of consistently promulgated images of the past is also evident in Russia and Lithuania before and after the collapse of the Soviet state. There, the judgments of young people of the importance of World War II, based on memories transmitted by cultural products and practices, remain relatively stable over time. This thesis thus expands upon previous research, finding that, in addition to experience during young adulthood, social influences compel the remembering, celebrating and forgetting of events of the recent past.