PROJECTS FOR THE CREATION OF A HOLOCAUST MUSEUM IN MOSCOW IN THE 1990s: INITIATION AND INTEREST GROUPS

Abstract

The article investigates the process of initiating and attempting to implement the project to create a Holocaust Museum in Moscow in the 1990s. The aim of the work is to analyze the mechanisms of interactions of Politics of Memory actors through the case study of this initiative, which helps to identify the specific features of the formation of Russian Politics of History in the 1990s. The study employs archival documents from state archives (GA RF, RGALI, TsGA of Moscow) and the archive of the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities "VAAD" to uncover the complex structure of interaction between diverse public organizations and the state apparatus, and to overcome the limitations of the existing historiography. A key finding demonstrates that the effective mechanism for advancing the public initiative was not public pressure, but lobbying through integration into government structures, which subsequently triggered an interagency process. At the same time, internal conflicts and competition existed both among Jewish public organizations and within state structures. Despite official support and the development of a draft Government Decree in 1995, the state Holocaust Museum was not established. As a result, the topic of the Holocaust was incorporated into the official memorial landscape only symbolically in the form of an exhibition inside the Memorial Synagogue on Poklonnaya Hill, built with private funds. Thus, memory politics emerges as a complex process of socio-political interaction, where the final outcome was determined by the intertwining of diverse interests, rather than by a unified state strategy.