Tobias Koellner1; Milena Benovska2; 1 Witten/Herdecke University, Germany; 2 South-West University of Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Discussion
Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Russian Federation, we focus on the politics of memory and the process of heritagization in relation to Orthodox Christianity. We explore the entanglements between politics (central and local) and Orthodox Christianity, by looking at the interrelation between immaterial values and material patrimonies. In so doing, we give attention to kraevedy (non-professional or semi-professional experts in local history and culture) as being among the main social actors engaged in the politics of memory. Their politics of memory diligently reshapes traumatic Russian memory into a coherent and non-conflictual vision of the past, thus contributing to the positive reshaping of the Russian national identity. This relates to larger processes of place-making activities such as the building or rebuilding of temples or the erection of new religious monuments, both reshaping Russian urban spaces and political narratives. In these processes, religious and political accounts and symbols are addressed simultaneously and seem mutually beneficial. However, we also found strong dissonance between church and politics on the local level. The approaches between local political actors and Orthodox activists and clergy lead to misunderstandings, competition or open conflict, notwithstanding the closeness of goals at developing new forms of collective identity.
