Politics of Memory and Oblivion in the European Context

Viktorija L. A. Čeginskas is Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, with an interest in cultural studies, belonging and Europe. She is currently working on the research projects EU Heritage Diplomacy and the Dynamics of Inter-Heritage Dialogue (HERIDI) and Sensory and Material Memories: Exploring Autobiographical Materiality (SENSOMEMO).Sigrid Kaasik-Krogerus is Lecturer at the University of Helsinki. Previously she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, on the research project Legitimation of European Cultural Heritage and the Dynamics of Identity Politics in the EU (EUROHERIT), funded by the European Research Council.Nina Sääskilahti is Senior Researcher at the University of Jyväskylä specialized in interdisciplinary cultural studies and memory studies. Previously she worked as researcher on the project Crossing Borders: Artistic Practices in Performing and Narrating Belonging.

• Introduction: Politics of memory and oblivion 1. Legacies of an imperial past in a small nation: patterns of postcolonialism in Belgium 2. Politics of fire: the commemorative torch rally 612 of the Finnish radical right 3. The political uses of the past in modern Russia: the images of the October revolution 1917 in the politics of memory of Russian parties 4. Highlights of national history? Constitutional memory and the preambles of post- communist constitutions 5. Reconstructing the past in a state- mandated historical memory institute: the case of Albania 6. The construction and deconstruction of national myths: a study of the transformation of Finnish history textbook narratives after World War II