Authors

Ekaterina Melnikova¹;  ¹ European University at St Petersburg, Russian Federation

Discussion

My paper focuses on heritage as a trigger for social mobilisation. By examining materials on grassroots, non-state and non-institutionalised forms of caring for the material remains of the past, I address the question of their continuity in relation to civic preservation projects from the late Soviet period.
The contemporary boom in grassroots heritage initiatives is often seen as a form of memory activism and a kind of political action. In the context of Soviet studies, various forms of heritage activism in the 1960 -1980s are also seen as proto- or pre-political activity – often the only viable form of political participation under authoritarian state control.
Today, we are again witnessing a boom in non-state heritage initiatives in Russia, but the link between these activities and political mobilisation seems problematic. In my article, I draw on the ethnography of volunteer projects and place them in a broader historical context to identify continuities and ruptures with late Soviet practices of non-govermental heritage preservation.
Drawing on the approach of W. Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg, I examine these initiatives as collaborative actions that unfold in two logics: collective and connective. The first presupposes the existence of long-term social ties, the formation of a stable ‘we’ community, group identities and shared values. The second enables individuals to engage in joint action while maintaining autonomy, without rigid organisational control, a unified identity and political unanimity.
By placing contemporary heritage initiatives in a comparative historical context, I argue that the emergence of a ‘new sociality’ based on connective logics of joint action significantly changes their political significance and defines a new format of activist agency in the Russian public sphere.