На пути к “предсказуемому” прошлому?: Комментарий к созданию Комиссии по противодействию попыткам фальсификации истории в России

SUMMARY:

In her contribution to the forum, Isabelle de Keghel analyzes the composition and objectives of the Presidential Commission to Counter Attempts at Falsifying History that Damage Russia’s Interests. She sees the Commission’s main purpose in ensuring Russia’s prerogative in the ongoing dispute with the post-Soviet states (first and foremost, with the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Poland) about the history of World War II. De Keghel argues that the creation of the Commission is a reaction to the increasing “internationalization of remembrance” of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as to the withering away of the generation that had actually experienced the war. She locates the beginning of the trend represented by the Commission back in 2001, as this year was marked by an upsurge in the politics of history. The Commission is a step in the growing trend to curb the freedom of opinion that has been observed in Russia since the mid-1990s. De Keghel evaluates the Commission’s aims as being unrealistic and inconsistent with an open, fair, and constructive discourse of the past, which should be based on free access to archives.