Militarized memory: patriotic re-branding in post-Soviet Pskov

In the midst of the crises of the late 2000s and 2010s, a number of patriotic initiatives emerged in historic Pskov, which aimed at lifting the region from the economic and social doldrums, and establishing it as a center of national spirituality and culture. This chapter examines three such initiatives: a project to establish a site of patriotic pilgrimage in the region, a campaign to promote the Olga of Kiev myth, and an initiative to replace the town’s Lenin monument with a more fitting local memorial. It considers the social and political contexts in which these projects emerged, the actors at the center of the initiatives, and the local and national consequences of attempts to reconfigure the region’s symbolic geography.