Conclusion

The “conservative turn” had a profound impact on the shaping of state memory policy. History was transformed into a key public language (discourse) through which a value dimension was introduced into the political space. The construction of a macropolitical identity by concretizing the thesis of a “1,000-year unified history of Russia” (as an answer to the question “What unites all Russians?”) was intertwined with the solution of a more specific and politically salient task for the ruling elites: the depoliticization of socio-economic issues alongside the politicization of culture, religion, and history. Put more simply, citizens were encouraged to debate anything except matters concerning their future and the existing political order. This was the cultural logic of the personalist authoritarianism that was being consolidated in Russia during this period.