Lenin in 2020: history politics in Putin’s Russia

Abstract

The article analyses the historical policy of the Russian Federation and its modern memorial culture areas. The study applies the case studies methodology, i.e., «study of individual cases», «analysis of a single case». The object of study is a socio-political situation associated with the 150th anniversary of V.I. Lenin. An analysis examines the transformation of the contradictory Leninist image in the Russian Federation and the attitude of various social and power structures, based on specific sociological surveys. A thorough study of empirical material allowed us to analyze the basic functions of the historical policy of the Russian Federation at the present stage. It became possible to analyze the interaction and mutual influence of the corporation of professional historians and Russian power structures, the behavior of state and public actors in the process of forming and implementing historical politics and memorial culture. The goal and objectives of the elites and other social strata in the implemented historical policy may coincide, partially correlate or contradict, but in the “Lenin case”, the situation was complicated by the absence of a scientifically defined object of this policy. Both the authorities and society expressed their attitude not to the existing V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), but to those legendary (or mythical) images that were created in different periods with completely different goals.