Russophobia as an Element of Decommunization: The Politics of Memory in the Post-Soviet Baltics

In the context of confrontation between Russia and Western countries, the “anti-Russian turn” in the memory policy of neighboring countries is a complex problem that has developed since the collapse of the USSR. Decommunization in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia is of particular interest: having begun earlier than others, it has been developing in the form of “exporting” Russophobia on the borders of Russia and in the world. The purpose of the article is to consider the manifestations of Russophobia as an element of decommunization in the Baltic countries. The article characterizes the conceptual foundations of the memory policy in terms of interpreting the Soviet past, the Russophobic ideas at the legislative and practical-political levels, the use of Russophobia in the process of forming public consciousness and refraction in it of the beginning of a special military operation. In the post-Soviet Baltics, the memory policy uses the concept of “occupation” by the Soviet Union in close connection with the task of building an ethnocratic statehood. The phenomenon of historical trauma has become entrenched in collective perception, and the distribution of the roles of “aggressor” and “victim” has an ethnic dimension. The experience of combating the “Russian threat” is being transmitted to the post-Soviet space and supported by Western countries. The problem of manifestations of Russophobia in the Baltics, caused by decommunization, is a matter of Russia’s national security.

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