This book discusses the diverse practices and discourses of memory politics in Russia and Eastern Europe. It argues that currently prevailing conservativism has a long tradition, which continued even in Communist times, and is different to conservatism in the West, which can accommodate other viewpoints within liberal democratic systems.

Introduction: Conservatism and Memory Politics Katalin Miklóssy 1. Putin’s History Politics and Conservative turn Markku Kangaspuro 2. A Conservative Turn in a Patriarchal Society? The Entangled Memory of Female Political Activism in Post-Soviet Russia Nadezda Petrusenko 3. Non-traditional Sexual Relationships: Law, Forgetting and the Conservative Political Discourse in Russia Alexander Kondakov 4. How to Conserve Kertbeny’s Grave? A Case of Post-Communist Queer Necrophilia Judit Takács 5. Witnesses from Gulag and Literary theosis: Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Stories and Evgeni Vodolazkin’s Aviator Elina Kahla 6. Revisiting the Narrative of Conservative Russian Islam Kaarina Aitamurto 7. Memory and leverage: Russia’s history policing and the remembrance of 1956 in Hungary Katalin Miklóssy 8. A Conservative Turn in Belarus? Exploring the Normative Power Potential of the Russian Conservative Agenda Natalia Morozova 9. Serbia and Russia: between Piety and Politics Brendan Humphreys 10. Paradigm change in Holocaust remembrance: instrumentalising conservatism Andrea Pető 11. Dilemma over Stalin: Confronting the Great Patriotic War and the Reputation of Russia Markku Kangaspuro 12. Victory Day, Family Style: Grassroots War Commemoration, Collective Memory Habits, and the Shaping of Public Affect Ekaterina Haskins 13. The Routinization of Conservatism: Key Stakeholders of Patriotic Education in Contemporary Russia Anna Sanina 14. Whose Turn, for Whom? Conservative Values and Putinʼs Social Contract Jussi Lassila