SUMMARY:

Georgii Kas’ianov of Ukraine approaches Russia’s initiative in the field of politics of history as part of the larger European trend of promulgating national and European Union laws regulating historical judgments. He stresses specific features of this politics of history in the post-Soviet states – new members of the European Union. In their attempts to forge new societies and loyal subjects they often make history an integral part of politics. In Kas’ianov’s estimate, Russia joined this trend after 2000, and Ukraine, in this respect, was following suit. What makes the new Russian Commission special is its pretentions toward regulating the policies of history and historical memory beyond Russian borders. In such an unusual form, Russia has institutionalized its – in many respects – scandalous international politics toward its immediate neighbors. Kas’ianov is mostly concerned with the fate of a newly reestablished (after the break in the early 1990s) professional cooperation between Ukrainian and Russian historians, and with the temptation that the Commission presents for Ukraine, which is institutionally as well as psychologically ready to follow Russia’s example.