Media Commemoration in Russia

Abstract

The recognition of the media’s power in shaping public attitudes towards wars is not sufficient for an understanding of the Russian experience of media commemoration of military fatalities. Our analysis cannot claim any accuracy without taking into account a series of groundbreaking political, economic and societal transformations experienced by the country from the early 1980s onwards. This chapter situates the analysis of the Russian military fatalities within the wider political context and traces changes in the media coverage from the Soviet Afghan War (1979–89) through the first Chechen conflict (1994–6) to the second conflict in Chechnya (1999–2009).