This website is devoted to developing a network of scholars working on questions indicated by the network’s title. In the post-socialist context representations and memories of the socialist or communist past come about in often tense political climates; more often than not the representations themselves are political. Against the backdrop of a transformation that deeply affected the values and norms which govern how individuals can portray themselves, how the past is remembered and talked about becomes also a moral question.
Members of this network explore questions of how the socialist and communist past is managed / re-worked / silenced / remembered at collective, individual and inter-personal levels in different eastern European countries and the former SU.
The network brings together scholars from a number of disciplines who use a range of approaches and seeks to encourage in particular scholars working ‘at home’ in eastern Europe and the former SU. Most are social scientists who investigate the creation of the socialist past qualitatively. Disciplines represented include amongst others anthropology, sociology, oral history, history, politics and psychology. The network’s regional specialisations currently span East Germany, The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, the Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan.