This panel features interdisciplinary research on national and transnational mnemonic practices that are reshaping collective memories of Soviet domination and state terror, World War II, and the Holocaust in the context of past and present global geopolitical crises. Panelists illuminate how the war in Ukraine has catalyzed and reinvigorated old debates about and commemorations of intertwining traumas of war, repressions, and genocide within and across national borders. Dovile Budryte traces the ways in which the processes of mnemonic decolonization in the Baltic states have been affected by several “critical situations” in international politics: the disintegration of the Soviet Union and restoration of Baltic statehood, joining the EU and NATO, and the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Anastasiya Pshenychnykh explores mnemonic decolonization in Ukraine, showing how contemporary crises and military conflicts can activate material heritage contestation in public spaces and on social media. Through social media analysis and interviews, the author demonstrates the diversity of individual perspectives on Russia Ukraine monument wars since the Russian invasion of 2022. Ekaterina Haskins addresses the affective social dimension of Returning the Names, the transnational grassroots commemoration of victims of Soviet political terror, to probe the role of mnemonic rituals in fostering collective hope within and across national boundaries. Drawing on participant observation, interviews, and the ritual’s digital archive, this study argues that Returning the Names is an exercise of collective hope for a more just future. Yaroslav Zhuravlov explores how Ukrainian postwar émigré communities engaged with Holocaust memory between 1945 and 1991 in Western Europe, North America, Australia, and Argentina. Drawing on periodicals, archival records, and oral histories, the paper traces how narratives of silence and displacement gradually evolved to include moments of reflection, solidarity with Jewish communities, and responses to broader shifts in memory politics.
Dovile Budryte, Georgia Gwinnett College - "Mnemonic Decolonization in the Baltic States".
Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022 has reinvigorated scholarly and public debates about decolonization in Central and Eastern Europe. The focus of this essay is on one particular type of decolonization in the Baltic states—mnemonic decolonization, understood as a process of “delinking from memories imposed by the colonial matrix of power” (Yurchuk 2024). The processes associated with mnemonic decolonization may include reclamation of past narratives, decanonization of narratives associated with the oppressive regime and memory/heritage activism (Yurchuk, forthcoming). Such processes may be triggered by international and domestic crises. This essay traces the ways in which the processes of mnemonic decolonization in the Baltic states have been affected by several “critical situations” in international politics: the disintegration of the Soviet Union and restoration of Baltic statehood, joining the EU and NATO, and the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. These “critical situations” have resulted in identity changes and produced new mnemonic discourses in the Baltic states.
Anastasiya Pshenychnykh, Loughborough University - "Public Receptions of Memory Contestations in the Shadow of War: the Case of Russia-Ukraine Monument Wars."
Contemporary crises and (military) conflicts may activate material heritage contestations in public and media spaces. A recent example is decolonization in Ukraine since 2022 which includes dismantling monuments, intensified online/offline memory activism and conflicts over monumental heritage on social media. For example, Ukrainian and occupational segments of Telegram frame the past from opposing perspectives to mobilize clashing sentiments among followers, considerably reducing nuanced opinions in online public debates. However, it is not clear whether the war radically shifted public perceptions of the past and how social media representations resonate with Ukrainian general public. The paper presents the analysis of 16 interviews with Ukrainians to show the diversity of individual perspectives on Russia-Ukraine monument wars. They range from radicalized, nationalistic ones to traumatic and nostalgic views, as well as reflective, critical, controversial and contradictory opinions. While the invasion of 2022 provoked widespread rejection of Russian culture and heritage among Ukrainians, it is only one factor among many--including ethnicity, place of residence, profession, education, engagement with heritage, and media consumption--that affect Ukrainians' attitudes toward the monument wars.
Ekaterina Haskins, Pennsylvania State University - "The Solidarity of Hope: Returning the Names and the Affective Sociality of Collective Mnemonic Performance".
This presentation will explore the affective social dimension of Returning the Names to probe the role of mnemonic rituals in fostering collective hope. Returning the Names is the transnational grassroots commemoration of victims of Soviet political terror. Initiated by the International Memorial, the ritual invites participants to assemble on October 29 to read the names drawn from the database of over 3 million victims. Beginning in 2007 in Lubyanka square in central Moscow, the ritual has since spread to other Russian cities and abroad. The study defines hope after philosopher Victoria McGeer (2004) as “a unifying and grounding force of human agency” and builds on research on affect and emotion in memory studies (Doss 2010), rhetoric (Glenn 2018, Barnett 2025), and activism (Solnit 2004). Drawing on participant observation, interviews, and the ritual’s digital archive, this study will argue that Returning the Names is an exercise of collective hope for a more just future. The ritual furnishes the spatio-temporal and performative scaffolding for both direct and mediated ethical and affective co-presence of strangers around the commemoration of individual victims of Soviet state terror. It fosters political hope by giving each individual participant agency to perform a connection to victims of state violence past and present and to affirm their commitment to justice as a normative political ideal. It fosters collective political hope by connecting participants as members of a provisional “we” that transcends particular group identities.
Yaroslav Zhuravlov, Friedrich Schiller University Jena - "Difficult Legacies: Holocaust Memory among Ukrainian Postwar Émigrés (1945–1991)".
This paper explores how Ukrainian postwar émigrés engaged with the memory of the Holocaust between 1945 and 1991, focusing on the complexities and tensions inherent in these memory practices. Drawing on a range of archival sources – including émigré newspapers, journals, institutional records, and oral histories – it traces the evolving ways in which Ukrainian diaspora communities across Western Europe (especially Germany and the UK), North America (USA and Canada), as well as Australia and Argentina, responded to the legacy of the Holocaust in their host countries. The analysis considers how these responses were shaped by political ideologies, generational divides, and differing degrees of proximity to Jewish communities and broader memory cultures. While early postwar narratives often downplayed or avoided direct engagement with the Holocaust, shifts occurred over time, influenced by broader public debates, changing scholarly paradigms, and new waves of documentation, including war crimes trials. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of Holocaust references in diaspora discourse – not only in terms of acknowledgment or denial, but also as a site of negotiation around Ukrainian victimhood, nationalism, and historical responsibility. The paper examines to what extent these communities contributed – explicitly or implicitly – to the transmission of knowledge about the Holocaust before Ukraine’s independence, and how that memory was mediated through exile institutions, religious actors, and print culture. Ultimately, the project argues that Holocaust memory among Ukrainian émigrés reflects a complex legacy – one that includes experiences of displacement and silence, instances of complicity, but also acts of solidarity, rescue, and cooperation with Jewish communities after the war, especially in the face of a shared adversary: the Soviet regime.
Petra Hudek, Vilnius University & Institute of History SAS
20260729T173020260729T1900America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires4.10. Memory Decolonization and Transnational Commemoration in the Shadow of War and ConflictsSV103MSA Buenos Aires 2026buenosairesconference@memorystudiesassociation.org
