The Politics of War Commemoration in the UK and Russia

ISBN-13: 9781137395702 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 256 str.

Nataliya Danilova

Opis

Wars do not simply vanish when politicians sign truces and weapons are set aside. Instead, society reimagines the war experience during annual ceremonies of war commemoration. This book sheds light on the political aspects of commemoration in Britain and Russia by investigating the media coverage of military fatalities, physical and virtual memorials, and national days of remembrance - Remembrance Day/Armistice Day in the UK and Victory Day in Russia. Nataliya Danilova argues that remembrance is a complex process of negotiating a political commitment towards fallen soldiers, national armed forces and the legacy of modern conflicts. By exercising a critical perspective on commemoration, this book explores the instrumentalisation of memory for managing civil-military relations, garnering public support for conflicts and government policies. This analysis advances our understanding of the nexus between remembrance, militarisation and nationalism thereby contributing to longstanding debates in memory studies, civil-military relations, political sociology, and international relations.

Recenzje

"This is a worthwhile and interesting book ... . there is however much of interest for the reader, especially in the sections dealing with contemporary war commemoration in Russia." (Steven J. Main, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 69 (2), March, 2017)

"Danilova's book is extremely well researched and her careful analysis is sensitive to the many particularities of both societies. ... a timely book that demonstrates the ways in which modern states use the commemoration of the war dead to promote and support messy, ambiguous, and conflict-ridden military campaigns. ... Danilova's outstanding work allows us to see the building blocks of military ideology at work as they are arranged and rearranged by states and social forces to build (or destroy) consensus." (Karen Petrone, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, Vol. 1 (2), 2016)

Spis treści

1. Memory Politics and the Afterlives of Soldiers 2. Media Commemoration in Britain 3. The Story of the War Memorials 4. Remembrance in Modern Britain: Support the Armed Forces 5. Media Commemoration in Russia 6. War Memorials in Russia 7. Remembering War: Celebrating Russianness 8. From Remembrance to Militarisation

O autorze

Nataliya Danilova is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. She publishes in civil-military relations, political history of the Soviet Afghan War, international politics, and memory studies. Her first monograph, Armiia i Obshchestvo: Printsypy Vzaimodeistviia (2007), discusses civil-military interactions in the EU and Russia.