Modern Wars of Memory or Approaches to the Interpretation of Historical Events in History, Politics and Education
The article deals with the phenomenon of memory wars, which is considered in the theoretical and methodological aspect. The relevance of the work is due to the lack of a comprehensive definition of the term “wars of memory” and its multiple meanings. The research was conducted on the material of the 2011-2020 scientific works. The aim of the work is to specify the term “wars of memory”. The author analyses different meanings of the term, involving in the study the concept of interpretation of historical events and comes to the conclusion that the term “wars of memory” is a concrete object of research. The object of the wars of memory is a particular interpretation of historical events. Two parties are involved in the conflict, with an antagonistic content in the dialogue; there may be an appeal to a third party. Direct interaction is possible, where one side appeals straightforwardly to its opponent, and indirect interaction, where an image of the enemy is created, but there is no direct appeal to the other side. Different interpretations of historical events manifest themselves both in scholarly debates and in specific wars of memory. In such conflicts of memory, historical science is used for political purposes. The struggle over the interpretation of historical facts and events takes place in relation to the past shared by both sides. Narratives of ideological content are created in the process of memory conflict. Different interpretations of historical events, including texts with ideological orientation, are published in large numbers on the internet. Based on a clarification of the meaning of the term, the author offers a definition of the term “wars of memory”. The definition emphasises that the party which initiates the conflict of memory creates an ideological, political narrative, which lacks professional interpretation of sources. The source may be mentioned, but it is not analysed with regard to the historical context of the specific era. Such an ideological narrative also has an emotional component - a desire to humiliate the historical memory of the country and the people of its opponent. The perspective further using the results of the study is outlined in the conclusion of the article.