Poltorakov, A. Yu. “Memory the Comrade”: Political Functions of Memory in History

Abstract: Review: in the modern world the paradigm of memory in history has acquired the role of a very complex social and cultural phenomenon. “Historical memory” still remains a good tool for handling a political struggle (“historical content” of ideologies and “historical material” for building political myths and ideologemes). In the context of the social and cultural development, “historical memory” is becoming a new political goal, some kind of the “social health”. The information society provides a wide range of opportunities for manipulating “historical memory”: since there is so much information (or “information noise”) around us, it is becoming more difficult t define what is necessary to remember and what is better to forget. “Historical memory” plays the double role, of a tool and a goal of policy. Now it is also becoming a political value and gaining ontological, gnoseological and ethical meaning. Key words: information society, memory in history, national identity, ethic and national self-consciousness, “policy of memory”, social communication, “social health”, totalitarianism, values, civilization.