Amid the political turmoil following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the unrest in eastern Ukraine, the Russian parliament revived a bill criminalizing the “rehabilitation of Nazism” that President Vladimir Putin promptly signed into law. Met with protests by liberal critics and professional historians, the law emerged in the context of a conservative legislation spree by the Russian parliament; the Ukraine crisis, which has encouraged ideological hardliners; and Putin’s own efforts to “manage” history. Ultimately, however, the law does not help Russian “conservatism” or Putin’s use of history. In the long run, the law will damage Russia’s national memory, one of the main resources of Putin’s management of symbols. While trying to establish historical canon, the law threatens to have a destabilizing effect on Russia’s national identity.
