Memory Studies Association Memory Scholars at Risk Fellow to join the project

From the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, and especially with the beginning of the massive military invasion on 24 February 2022, this MSA Fellow from Russia used his Facebook account as a platform for anti-war discussion and published a declaration against the war in Ukraine. For his activism, he has been persecuted by the FSB, which forced him to abandon Russia and seek refuge elsewhere. After a period in Uzbekistan, the professor and researcher who worked at the Perm branch of the Higher School of Economics had moved Germany, where was accommodated at the Universities in Bremen and Mainz.

From mid-December on, he will continue his research at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis thanks to the MSA Fellowship “Memory Scholars at Risk”. Together with the PI Boris Noordenbos and the rest of the Conspiratorial Memory team, he will continue to analyze memory-related news stories and opinion pieces about the current war against Ukraine.

We share an excerpt of his story. The full text can be found here. For reasons of his personal safety, his story has been anonymized.

February, 23

I work in my country household (“dacha”), dropping wet, heavy snow from the roof of the house. Incoming letter from my German colleague: “Hooray! Our project, ‘Remembrance of Solidarity as a Resource in the Current Conflict Situation,’ is supported by the German foundation!”

We are working!  I have a feeling that everything will be fine and that the war will not start». That’s great news. For several years we have been preparing this Belarusian-German-Russian-Ukrainian project, dedicated to the memory of Jews from the western regions of the USSR who came (being evacuated, deported, exiled, fleeing) in the Urals during the Second World War. Evening, I read the news. The feeling grows more and more anxious. I am preparing a draft anti-war statement on behalf of the board of the regional branch of the Memorial Society and sending it to my colleagues.

Early in the morning — a shock, Putin’s crazy speech, the invasion begins. I write to my Ukrainian friends… God, this is madness. We discuss with colleagues from the Perm Memorial the text of the anti-war statement — this time against the actual, not the possible invasion, make some changes and publish it on our website.