Remembering Lived Past: History and Memory in Post-Stalin Azerbaijan

Abstract

The data collected during the author's ‘History of Azerbaijan’ class at Baku State University in 2014 showed that both the young and old generations felt great sympathy for the Soviet polity. Social life after Stalin was seen as a period of political stability and social prosperity. However, the official party and government documentation as well as individual memory reject this understanding. This article examines the collective and individual memory of Azerbaijani society in the post-Stalin period to understand why the social grievances and dissatisfaction of the time are discounted by modern-day Azerbaijanis, who see the time as one of social prosperity. The research is based on various primary sources from the Azerbaijan and Russian Federation archives. Data from surveys of 796 respondents, as well as ten interviews, were involved in the research. Mixed methods, a combination of descriptive qualitative and quantitative methods, were used for this research.