Resurrection by Surrogation

Spectral Performance in Putin's Russia

Bibliographic Data

ID4205896
AuthorsMaksim Hanukai (0000-0002-0819-0000, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume79
Issue4
Pages800-824
Publication date2020-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/slr.2021.6
OpenAlexW3134796602
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

This article examines the emergence of what I call "spectral performance" in Putin's Russia. Focusing on the Immortal Regiment initiative, I investigate the growing importance of practices that ask the living to act as surrogates for the dead. My analysis proceeds in three stages. First, applying a memory studies frame, I show how the Regiment helps preserve memory of WWII in a time of significant generational change. Second, drawing on theories of political theology and biopolitics, I show how the Regiment reaffirms the Kremlin's sovereign power to regulate the boundaries between life and death while symbolically displacing sovereignty from the "flesh" of the people to a growing ranks of "immortals." Finally, focusing on the question of representation, I show how the Regiment helps construct an oppressive distribution of the sensible that privileges the dead over the living. I conclude by examining St. Petersburg artist Maksim Evstropov's necro-activist project Party of the Dead as a cultural critique of the Regiment

Biopower · Construct (python library · Frame (networking · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

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