New blog text by Alexandra Kolesnik on the Militarization of Soviet Rock Heritage in Contemporary Russia

In her blog post “Is Viktor Tsoi Alive? On the Militarization of Soviet Rock Heritage in Contemporary Russia,” Alexandra Kolesnik examines how popular culture and collective memory can become contested political resources. She argues that the memory of the Soviet rock musician Viktor Tsoi was originally preserved by fans through subcultural and, to some extent, oppositional practices. In recent years, however, his legacy has increasingly been appropriated by the Russian state and instrumentalized as a patriotic—and at times militarized—symbol, particularly in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Read on the ZfL BLOG