Medievalist Analogies in the Context of the Symbolic Politics of Contemporary Russia: The Competition of Narratives

The article is devoted to a political science study of the phenomenon of medievalism — the use of images and symbols of the Middle Ages in current politics and public discourse. The authors consider medievalism as a reaction to the crisis of universalist educational narratives and analyze its role in the post-Soviet space, especially in Russia. The work argues that the political actualization of medieval images in the countries of the post-Soviet region is closely related to the processes of nation building and the wars of memory aimed at revising the general imperial and Soviet historiography. The authors identify two competing models of medievalism in present Russian public space: conservative, idealizing the domestic Middle Ages within the framework of traditional values, and liberal, using ironic images of the European Middle Ages to criticize the current political agenda and distance from the official sacralization of history. As a result, it is concluded that, despite its active use in public policy, medievalism has a limited impact on present commemorative practices.

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