KREMLINS MEMORY MAKERS THE Paperback – 1 Jun. 2023

For all of us wondering how regimes like Russia are able to project such self serving narratives domestically one should read this book. The techniques and ideology driving these revisionist history programs are not unique to Russia and are core tools for many propaganda departments around the world including the CCP so it is worthwhile to understand the overall implementations and vast social infrastructure used to reshape memory of history for the benefit of political control.The book is broken in to seven chapters starting with the growing awareness of Putin and his political circle of the need to reclaim its historical narrative after the chaotic collapse of the USSR. As the country lost its ideological coherence and the lack of national identity that came from the importation of a market regime that was ill suited to the time, Russia's prominence was seen to be falling and a push was made to reclaim continuity to the past. The book discusses how the Kremlin reshaped its accounts of history and re-wrote its textbooks. From the anti-Soviet sentiment period of the 90s and early 2000s was shifted to a perspective of the continuity of Russian culture and national greatness that spanned eras. The author discusses how the media was adopted into this process with the effecting closing down of independent media sources. Russia increasingly set stringent laws preventing independence of journalism but couched its state led stories in illusions of diversified views all confirming the government's accounts of the facts. Despite there being skeptics to this form of brains washing, it has undoubtedly proved effective. Furthermore it has instilled a sense of pride in the nation's accomplishments which was a sentiment that had been deteriorating in the aftermath of the fall of the USSR.The author discusses war and in particular WWII and Russia's critical role in saving Europe from Nazism. They push the view that they are not sufficiently lauded for their contributions and their sacrifices were for the greater good of the world. From this victimhood but couched in greatness in battle they push their rights to Ukraine and its historical fringe ties to collusion with the Nazis for narrow segments of the population. This historical grudge that is not related to Ukraine per se has been used to project the idea that Ukraine today has been trying to rid its population of Russian influences and they refer to this history in their current current justification to invade. The author also highlights how its involvement in Syria too was used to motivate a picture of Russia remaining an actor on the world stage, removing bad actors like ISIS and with such actions it deserves global respect as a great power.The author goes on to inspect the tribalism being embraced by the government to create a political legitimacy and the hypocrisy and corruption of many of the individuals dictating these policies. He also highlight how they dismiss facts as irrelevant to the moral lessons of their fabrications as acceptable because everything can be re-interpreted. This is deemed post-truth. This level of cynicism seems to be quite global with the rise of Trumpism and Brexit etc so much of this is contemporary to a growing global identity crises. Thus the author ends with the broader view of memory politics and the re-shaping of history for the goals of creating tribal allegiances to make it easier to maintain political legitimacy by political actors engaging in such. This is both observable and scary.Memory makers is both informative and insightful. For all of the head scratching that is ones first instinct when hearing Putin rationalize his actions there is a longer history of reframing of history that has been taking place for a decade that this author documents. One better understands the path to this fabrication but also the deep strategy behind it (though it seems we have gotten to the point where the politicians have drunk their own kool-aid). Definitely recommend this book to understand the political mechanics used to heighten nationalism for the benefit of unifying populations against others and distracting them from looking at their domestic problems.

I read this book after hearing an excellent discussion with Dr McGlynn on a DW news program. The book is written scholarly language, which is not in ordinary use. Therefore I had to stop and translate many times. It answered many questions about what exactly is on the minds of Russian leadership—particularly with regard to Ukraine and Syria. It appears that the West is not just on a different page, but in a different book.