Securitization of Memory in the Pandemic Period: The Case of Russia and Latvia
- Sergii Pakhomenko
, - Iryna Gridina
Abstract
The article examines the processes of memory securitization in the Russian
Federation and Latvia during the coronavirus crisis. The key factor that
allowed the authors to make such a statement about the problem was the
temporary coincidence of the pandemic with the 75th anniversary of the
final defeat of Nazi Germany and the so-called Victory Day. As a theoretical
basis for the study, we use the constructivist understanding of security in
order to study, with specific examples, how the threat in the form of a
pandemic became a frame for securitization of memory. The authors
identify the peculiarities of the articulating of security problems by political
elites in two states with different memory regimes framed by the pandemic
as an external factor.
Keywords
Securitization, memory, Russia, Latvia, Covid-19 pandemic
Author Biography
Sergii Pakhomenko
Sergii Pakhomenko is an Associate Professor of the Department of
International Relations and Foreign Policy of Mariupol State University. He
holds a PhD from the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv) with a specialization in History of
Ukraine. In 2020 he held a research fellowship at the University of Latvia.
His scientific interests are politics of memory, nation and nationalism
studies, social security, and the problems of nationalism and ethnic
minorities in the countries of the Baltic-Black Sea region. He won the
Vyhovsky Award of the Institute of Eastern Europe of Warsaw University in
2017.
Iryna Gridina
Iryna Gridina is a Professor of the Department of International Relations
and Foreign Policy, the Faculty of History of Mariupol State University. She
holds a PhD in History of Ukraine, and she is also a holder of an Advanced
Doctorate (Doctor of Science) in Historical Sciences with a specialization in
History of Ukraine. Her main research areas are hybrid warfare, aggression
of the Russian Federation and the war in the East of Ukraine, and ideology
and propaganda in political processes.