Moscow, The City of Competing Historical Narratives

Visual Tour of Moscow's Commemorations of Stalin's Great Terror

Over 70 years have passed since the last great wave of Stalin’s Terror, and yet Moscow still shows signs of its inconsistency to unify one particular national narrative of its oppressive past. What emerges from the plurality of social narratives, cacophonously attempting to carve out its own representation of past events, is the apparent strong need for Moscow to undertake the project of addressing the atrocities that Stalin’s terror invoked.

However, the multitude of Moscow’s narratives of the city’s past, beginning with the Solovestksy Stone to community-led initiatives to a new beacon of hope for public recognition in the Wall of Grief, shows us that Moscow is indeed showing the growing pains of “emancipatory opportunities and expanded individual’s choices.” A disunity of historical narratives may not necessarily be a terrible predicament. Rather, by the very fact grass-roots initiatives can occur in Moscow, it shows the city is making progress in the increase of political freedom and expression by individuals. Perhaps the ability to have disunity in its ideas of Stalinist Terror commemoration shows Moscow’s departure from its oppressive past, and ironically gives hope for increasing individual expression in the city.