Popular media play an important role in reconstructing collective imaginations of history. Dramatic events and ruptures of the 20th century provide the material for playful as well as neo-imperialist and nationalist appropriations of the past. The contributors to the volume investigate this phenomenon using case studies from Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian popular cultures. They show how in mainstream films, TV series, novels, comics and computer games, the reference to Soviet history offers role models, action patterns and even helps to justify current political and military developments. The volume thus presents new insights into the multi-layered and explosive dynamics of popular culture in Eastern Europe.

Matthias Schwartz is head of the program area World Literature at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL), Berlin, Germany. His research interests include the cultural history of Russian and Soviet space flight, adventure literature, science-fiction and science popularisation, Eastern European youth cultures, memory cultures, and contemporary literatures in a globalized world. Nina Weller is a postdoctoral researcher at Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. She is head of the BMBF project 'The Past of the Present'. Her research focuses on contemporary literature, popular culture, meemory studies, and representations of history in Eastern European cultures (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine).