Occupation and Communism in Eastern European Museums

This volume offers fresh perspectives on the representation of the recent past in museums of the Second World War and of communism in post-communist Eastern Europe. It does so against the background of recent European-wide debates on history, memory and politics. The contributors from across Europe focus comparatively on a wide variety of case studies, pointing out similarities and differences, and accounting for transnational patterns of remembrance at regional and European level. Occupation and Communism in Eastern European Museums argues that museums have a huge influence on the image of the communist past in Eastern Europe. It shows how they use a vast array of media tools, visual tactics and commercial strategies in order to substantiate ideological approaches to the past and to shape the attitude of public opinion.

Constantin Iordachi is Professor in the History Department at Central European University, Hungary. He is the author of Liberalism, Constitutional Nationalism and Minorities: The Making of Romanian Citizenship, c. 1750-1918 (2019) and editor of Comparative Fascist Studies (2009). Péter Apor is Research Fellow at the Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary. He is the author of Fabricating Authenticity in Soviet Hungary: The Afterlife of the First Hungarian Soviet Republic in the Age of State Socialism (2014).

List of Images Part 1 - History, Memory, and Politics in Eastern European Museums 1. Memorializing Recent 'Pasts' in Eastern Europe, Péter Apor and Constantin Iordachi, (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) and (Central European University, Hungary) 2. 'Remembering' versus 'Condemning' Communism, Constantin Iordachi, (Central European University, Hungary) 3. Institutional Narratives of Communism in Slovakia: Substituting the Non-Existence of the Official Museum of Communism, Martin Kovanic, (Mendel University, Czech Republic) Part 2 - Museums of Occupation 4. Tackling the Past in Poland: Museifying World War II, Maud Guichard-Marneur, (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) 5. From Museum as Memorial to Memory Museum: On the Transformation of the Estonian Museum of Occupations, Kirsti Jõesalu and Ene Kõresaar, (both University of Tartu, Estonia) 6. (Re)constructing the Past: Museums in Post-Communist Croatia, Vjeran Pavlakovic, (University of Rijeka, Croatia) Part 3 - Museums of Communism and the Politics of History 7. Boundary Objects of Communism: Assembling the Soviet Past in Lithuanian Museums and Public Spaces, Egle Rindzeviciute, (Kingston University London, UK) 8. The 'Display' of Communism in Germany, Irmgard Zürndorf, (The Centre for Contemporary History, Germany) 9. Remembering the GDR, Martin Sabrow, (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany) 10. Discussing the Past, or Airing the Depots: Refashioning Exhibitions of Socialism in Serbia, Olga Manojlovic-Pintar (Institute for Recent History of Serbia, Serbia) and Aleksandar Ignjatovic (University of Belgrade, Serbia) 11. Life and Death of the Communist Object in Post-Communist Romanian Museums, Simina Badica, (National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Romania) Part 4 - Museums of Communism: Practices of Representation 12. Laboratory: A Proposal for Representing Communism in Romania, Viviana Iacob, (University of Bucharest, Romania) 13. Museums of Socialism from Below: Grass-roots Representations of the Socialist Past in Contemporary Bulgaria, Rossitza Guentcheva, (Institute for Advanced Study, Germany) 14. Canons of Civilization and Experiments of Spectacle: Exhibiting Contemporary History in Hungary, Péter Apor, (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) 15. Conclusions, Péter Apor (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) and Constantin Iordachi (Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) Index