Nostalgia in political history museums in Germany and Russia

“We will not make this mistake a second time.” With these words,
Vladimir Putin justified Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine,
referencing Stalin’s failed attempts in appeasing Hitler and
thereby eqating the United States and NATO allies with Nazi
Germany. But the fight over historical interpretations did not
begin in February 2022, nor is it unique to contemporary Russia. We
also see it closer to home: in the nostalgic language of the far
right and populist parties in Germany, France or Poland. In the
political discourse of the AfD, the Rassemblement National or PiS,
we find prominent appeals to a country’s glorious or noble history,
which sidelines tragic events of national guilt. In this episode,
Félix Krawatzek discusses the use of history and particulary of
nostalgia in Russia and beyond with Jörg Morré and Oleg Lutohin,
who are both engaged in portraying and exhibiting contemporary
history – in theory and in practice. They talk about Soviet
nostalgia and the situation of museums in Russia and they discuss
how to avoid the political cooptation of memorial sites and
museums. (Music: “Complete” by Modul is licensed under a CC
BY-NC-ND 3.0-License.)