Boris Noordenbos to lead a seminar Weaponizing the Past: The Conspiratorial Memory Work of Putinist Propaganda at Utrecht University (January 18, 2023)

Date: January 18, 2023

Time: 17.15

Location: Utrecht University, Drift 21, GA 0032

For more information follow this link.

In the context of the current war, commentators frequently point to the Kremlin’s ludicrous vilifications of Ukrainians, as brutal ‘fascists,’ rabid ‘nationalists,’ dangerous ‘Bandera-supports,’ or marionetted ‘instruments’ of the ‘Russophobic’ West. The conspiracism and anachronism of this rhetoric is widely acknowledged. Yet the mechanisms by which Putinist propaganda weaponizes ‘the past’ leave many questions open. How exactly do tropes of memory and conspiracy reinforce one another in the Russian leadership’s propagandistic justifications for their unprovoked war against Ukraine? What are the (Soviet and post-Soviet) genealogies of these tropes, and how do official and grassroots voices (selectively) recycle them as interpretive lenses onto current affairs? What kind of relations between past, present, and future are imagined in the process?  

Exploring these questions, the lecture proposes the concept of ‘conspiratorial memory’ for this toxic mix of mnemonic gestures and conspiracy-based interpretations. Extending its scope beyond the recent invasion of Ukraine, the paper also zeroes in on the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the Covid-19 crisis of 2020-2022. It scrutinizes how conspiratorial memory informed state-aligned perspectives on these events, as expressed in journalism, popular culture, and political rhetoric. Finally, the lecture addresses the value and limitations of memory studies’ conceptual toolkit. How may recent scholarship in this ever-expanding field help to elucidate – and inspire strategies to counter – the rhetorical and affective appeal of conspiratorial memory?