Abstract

The essay aims to analyze the politics of memory proposed by the governments of the Russian Federation from 2005 to 2015 and the connections with geopolitical changes. In particular, I will focus on 9 May Victory Day parade organized on Red Square in Moscow to celebrate the victory in the Second World War (the Great Patriotic War in Russia). The military parade is useful for the Russian government to promote a common public memory and a post-Soviet identity related to some Soviet values (military heroism, sense of sacrifice, obedience to the State). President Putin proposed a neo-Stalinist narrative of the Victory. The slogans and the rhetoric used by him are connected with the modern Russian identity that was born in the Thirties of XX Century. This was an Imperial identity. In relation with this, the Russian government has developed a transnational narrative of the Victory Day to justify the new imperial role of Russia in the post-Soviet space. In other words, Putin has renewed both the myth of Great Patriotic War and the imperial status of Russia.