Researchers have referred to Vladimir Putin as a “History man”. It has been confirmed that he takes a great personal interest in history and frequently speaks about the topic. However, previous research has not taken account for how Putin gives his statements about history additional authority. One way in which he does this is by referring to archives and archival documents, thus giving his statements about history an additional aura of “truthfulness”. This essay aims to partially fill the gap in previous research by examining Putin’s statements about history and archives from a perspective of archival science by asking the following research questions: “How does Putin view archives and archival records?”, “What can archives be used for and what characteristics are they given by Putin?”. The theoretical and methodological basis for this essay is discourse analysis and Jörn Rüsen’s typology of historical narratives. By examining the discourses Vladimir Putin expresses and reproduces about archives insight has been gained into the way in which a prominent politician uses archives, how he views their function in society and what their characteristics are. As Vladimir Putin seemingly always speaks about archives in relation to history the latter could not be ignored, which is why Rüsens’ typology was used to examine what kind of historical narrative Putin expresses when speaking about archives. The analysis in this essay shows that Vladimir Putin has a strong belief in archives as mirrors of the past. According to the Russian President archives portray a completely accurate and unquestionable account for how history has unfolded. He dismisses any historical narrative that is not based on archival documents as politicized speculation. In Putin’s eyes archives also play a central role in preserving a common, national heritage for the entire Russian nation as a whole.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-43798 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Berglund, Petter |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Arkivvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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