Public History in Russia: The Past, the Present, and (Thoughts About) the Future

Abstract

This discussion’s participants – all public historians working on Russia, albeit from different disciplinary backgrounds and with different areas of expertise – speak about the past and the present of (public) history in the country, and touch upon possible futures. Beginning with an acknowledgment of the immense interest in historical knowledge that characterized the 1990s, the conversation goes on to examine the rise of the official historical politics in Putin’s Russia and their impact on historical science, memory work, and public engagement with the past more broadly. These developments contextualize the establishment of the first public history programs at Russian universities in the early 2010s, discussed here both in their specificities and compared to other countries. At the heart of the conversation is the war of aggression that Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022. The participants of the discussion see it as a caesura, while at the same highlighting continuities in the regime’s historical politics before and after the invasion. Issues of postcolonialism and decolonization are also raised, as well as the question of (public) historians’ responsibility for the ongoing tragedy.