Historical Politics and Memory Politics in Central Europe: Genealogies of Concepts, National Contexts, and the Europeanization of Memory
https://doi.org/10.46272/IT.2025.23.4.83.4
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between the concepts of “historical politics” and “politics of memory” in Central Europe after 1989. The author focuses on the political and commemorative forms of engaging with the past that have emerged in the context of post-socialist transformation, democratic transition, and European integration. Particular attention is given to the analysis of the Europeanization of memory as a process in which national historical narratives are correlated with supranational European norms and symbolic frameworks. Drawing on Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and Slovak conceptual traditions, the author demonstrates that historical politics and the politics of memory in scholarly and public discourse often converge but are not reducible to one another. Historical politics refers primarily to institutionalized strategies of public authorities for managing the past, whereas memory politics encompasses a broader sociocultural and commemorative register of practices. Overall, the distinction between these concepts retains independent analytical and methodological significance for the study of Central European approaches to the past after 1989.
About the Author
Pavel Dotsenko
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Mr Pavel A. Dotsenko – PhD Student, Department of Foreign Regional Studies
and Foreign Policy
Moscow, 125993
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Review
For citations:
Dotsenko P. Historical Politics and Memory Politics in Central Europe: Genealogies of Concepts, National Contexts, and the Europeanization of Memory. International Trends / Mezhdunarodnye protsessy. 2025;23(4):33-49. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.46272/IT.2025.23.4.83.4
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