Mihail Pojarsky/For the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression

On the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression. I once spoke with a Chechen. The conversation turned to Stalin and the position there was simple: Stalin deported my ancestors, so I hate him. It is quite possible that the speaker had nothing against deportations as such. And I wouldn't be upset if some other nation had been deported, but since it was about his family, the position here is unambiguous. But here, among us Russians, you can find the position: "My great-grandfather was shot, but it was necessary for the state." But many Russians don't even know who was shot there and don't really try to find such information. Recently, when I was in Montenegro, a girl there gave a wonderfully accurate definition of Russians. "A Russian is someone who knows his ancestors no further than two generations" (or something like that). Really, how many people do we have in Russia who know their family history further than a vague memory of their grandmother?

But it is precisely this kind of forgetfulness that lies at the foundation of our problems. Digging into family history, it is easy to discover that someone was shot during the Great Purge, another perished in a massacre during the Great War, a third was starved to death as part of yet another great policy that demanded national sacrifices. Such memory hinders the state, which wants to sell you yet another "greatness." Instead of real individual history, instead of the memory of real ancestors, the state sells you "national" history. We are Tolstoyevsky, we are Gagarin, we are Suvorov and other "The conversations about important things" (this is what lessons where children are given historical propaganda are called in Russia). It may all be good, but what does all this have to do with your real ancestors, who most likely first languished in serfdom, then starved on collective farms, and then died on all-Union construction sites? However, such a "national history" is needed so that people associate their interests with the interests of an abstract state, behind which the interests of the ruling class are hidden. The best slave is the one who does not notice his slavery. And is convinced that the successes of the masters are in fact his own.

Therefore, living historical memory, consisting of millions of small stories, is contraindicated for such a system. It is no wonder that they fight against it: they close archives, persecute organizations that dig into this topic, and in other ways build a "monopoly on memory". The state is not averse to exploiting trauma. But also in a purely collective, de-individualized format. "We overcame, we died, we starved." This is a convenient generalization, within the framework of which high-ranking officials and powerless subordinates find themselves in the same boat and suffer equally. The main thing is not to get into the details. But it is precisely with such investigations that the process should begin, which will allow one to detach oneself from the egregor and realize one's interests.

Mihail Pojarsky 2024-11-01