Authors
Kapitolina Fedorova1; Natalia Tshuikina1; 1 Tallinn University, Estonia Discussion
Sharing memories and narratives focused on the imagined past is a process important for creating and maintaining new group identities. Modern technologies, including digitalization of archive documents and photos and online communication with strangers via social media, provide many new opportunities for such practices. The proposed paper explores the challenges encountered by Russian speakers in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and the strategies employed by them to adapt to the altered socio-cultural landscape, with a specific emphasis on the role of social networking, online communication, and memorial practices. In the Baltic states, as in many other Post-Socialist countries, the phenomenon known as ‘nostalgia for communism’ is quite common. The Soviet past and its legacy, condemned by the state officials, is, though, quite often represented favourably in many public discussions and in interpersonal everyday communication. The paper deals with one particular case of using historical narrative and the discourse of “the great past”: online publications and discussions in social media around the celebration of Victory day on May 9, 2023. In the context of the Baltic countries’ authorities' efforts to counter Russian propaganda amid the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the memory of World War II becomes a battleground for ideological confrontation and a discursive tool for fostering a sense of community among Russian-speaking minorities in these nations. In the paper, posts and comment threads in different Facebook groups are studied using sociolinguistic methods of discourse and conversational analysis, to reveal the discursive mechanisms of sharing and creating memories for strengthening the group identity and employing nostalgic feelings for opposing the official narrative not only in relation to the past but also in current political issues. 
