08 September 2022
Gorbachev’s Legacy in Lithuania
The last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who oversaw its largely peaceful collapse, passed away last week at the age of 91. Despite the praise from Western leaders, Lithuanian's public view is mostly unaffected by "Gorbamania". Gorbachev's reputation in Lithuania was irreparably damaged by the crackdown of January 13, 1991. After failing to seize control of important institutions in Vilnius, Soviet forces killed 14 individuals and injured hundreds more in a bloody massacre. Continue reading >>
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23 Juni 2022
Governing the Memory of the Present
Putin’s Russia is a global champion of memory laws that fabricate the state’s perennial innocence and glory and make it a criminal offense to diverge from the state-sanctioned historical narratives. The state’s propaganda has also promoted symbols that convey support for or condoning of the Russia’s war, such as the “Z”, “V”, and St. George's ribbon. The emergence of these symbols in the public sphere has put militant democracy provisions existing in many European legal orders into the spotlight, but also propelled lawmakers in some states to adopt new provisions prohibiting the use of such symbols. We discuss the reaction mechanism in Lithuania, Germany, and Poland. Continue reading >>
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