Memory Politics Beyond the Political Domain Historical Legitimation of the Power Vertical in Contemporary Russian Television

The article outlines the main trends in Russian memory politics of the period 2000-2012 and analyzes how it extends into the domain of television. Examining selected TV productions, it demonstrates how cultural memory is used to construct a historical legitimation for the power vertical and to frame political opposition as foreign agents. It argues that memory politics indeed extended onto the television screen; yet the actual shape the narratives took was not as strictly regulated as is often assumed. A measure of deviation from the official line was allowed, albeit within a constantly shifting bandwidth of what is deemed permissible.