Between Memory and Memorial: Anastas Mikoyan and "Social Lustration" in Armenia

Abstract

This article analyzes the public discourse on the Soviet history of Armenia provoked by the initiative to raise a monument to the Soviet political figure Anastas Mikoyan in a central park of Yerevan in 2014. Within this discourse some Soviet historical events have been included into, or excluded from, the "national narratives" by different groups both in Armenia and the Diaspora. This case exposes the complex interrelations between family memories about the Soviet functionary and different versions of the official historiography and non-official oral histories of former Soviet citizens and their post-Soviet descendants.