2 . A falling Lenin monument in Khmelnytsky Statue of Lenin toppled near Stanytsia Luhanska | Volodymyr D-k , CC BY-SA 3.0 , Wikimedia Commons
not mean it cannot consider the social memories of the lived experience or the political divisions rooted in the long history of the 20th century that , in both East and West , cut across societies .
In 1989 , under the dual guidance of Yuri Afanasiev and Marc Ferro , the book entitled 50 idées qui ébranlèrent le monde . Dictionnaire de la glasnost [ 50 Ideas That Shook The World . Glasnost Dictionary ] was published in France . Original in its approach , it organised dialogues and confrontations between French and Soviet authors on a series of topical issues . A double “ Memory-History ” leaflet was written by Yuri Afanasiev on the one hand , and Pierre Nora on the other , then engaged in writing the major volume Les Lieux de Mémoire [ Realms of Memory ]. Yuri Afanasiev began his reflection on memory by emphasising the importance of memory for societies as well as for individuals . Sometimes , he wrote , memory seems to die out “ then it gushes again and sets the whole social reality alight ”, in the most contemporary Soviet context as in Khrushchev ’ s time with de-Stalinisation and the release of thousands of prisoners . At that time , however , he underlined , it was literature and the publicisation of memories , and not history , which initiated the reconstruction of memory destroyed by years of Stalinism “ by the powerful means of propaganda , by official history […] by physical violence and finally by the ramifications of the network of camps ”. He concluded : “ Reconciling history and memory in the conditions of Soviet society is no easy task . Our history is just as falsified by the past ”. And , therefore , “ history belongs to everyone and to no one ”. Pierre Nora , following him , noted that “ in both East and West , the invocation of memory and its saving virtues has recently taken on burgeoning topicality ” and immediately warns : “ in the West , memory is not sacred today only because , most often , it is poor and misleading . It is memory , and not history , that conveys ready-made truths ”.
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Observing Memories Issue 5