Anamnesis: Post-Soviet Memory and Religion through the Prism of New Martyrs

The use of martyrdom narratives by religious institutions and believers in Eastern Europe to deal with the deaths of men and women who perished in communist purges and camps has attracted scholarly attention, but still lacks a comprehensive treatment.

In particular, the mass canonisations and commemorations of so-called New Martyrs by the Orthodox churches suggest that religion has an important role to play in shaping narratives of the past and, thus, affecting collective identities.

Yet, because works on post-communist non-secular memory are generally lacking, the role of East European churches in the process of coming to terms with the past remains poorly understood.

The aim of ANAMNE is to provide a comparative, evidence-based study of Orthodox commemorations of New Martyrs in three national contexts, Russia, Ukraine and Estonia, with a special focus on gender, in particular on the lack of female New Martyrs.

Using an interdisciplinary approach of memory studies, cultural history, anthropology and religious studies, this innovative study will provide insight into the relationship between the communist past and the collective identities of contemporary Orthodox Christians, and contribute to our understanding of the workings of martyrdom narratives globally.

Expected outcomes of the study will be a change in the attitudes of the various stakeholders towards religion’s role in the process of ‘coming to terms with the past’.

More broadly, the project will advance the excellence of comparative research on memory and religion in several Widening EU countries, a large majority of which have strong Orthodox representation.

This MSCA fellowship in the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will allow the very Experienced Researcher to build strong leadership in her field, take the next step towards a research professorship, and strengthen her international networks and funding.