IWMpost 127: History and Memory

“History and memory” make up the central focus of this issue. Robert Skidelsky illustrates how questions of interpretation and positionality have pushed the claim of objective reconstruction of the past into the background in the mainstream understanding of history. His essay provided the inspiration for the cover of this issue which shows a statue of King Leopold II of Belgium in Ghent that was smeared with red paint and removed just as the country was about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence. The other essays in this focus address the official politics of memory (Sergei Medvedev, Nikolai Antoniadis), the difficulty but also the need to confront the unpleasant aspects of one's own past (Teresa Reiter, Jerko Bakotin), the problems of critical historians in authoritarian regimes (Felix Ackermann) and the function of memorial sites and monuments (Iryna Sklokina). 

Other contributions shed light on the severe consequences of the pandemic among socially vulnerable groups such as migrants and prisoners (Giorgia Donà, Paula Banarjee, Eric Reinhart), address contemporary capitalism (Branco Milanovic, Mariana Mazzucato, Albena Azmanova, Pedro Perfeito da Silva), deal with current challenges to liberalism (Judy Dempsey, Michael Igantieff) and Russia's and China's relationship to the West and the international order (Volha Biziukova, Thomas Eder), and honor Marcin Król, a long-time friend of the IWM who sadly passed away last November (Ivan Vejvoda, Marci Shore, Tim Snyder).