POLITICS OF MEMORY IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN AS A NON-WESTERN FORM OF HISTORICAL POLITICS (BETWEEN THE VALUES OF THE UMMAH AND THE PRINCIPLES OF NATIONALISM)

Abstract

The author analyzes the main features and directions of the policy of historical memory in the Islamic Republic of Iran, proclaimed in the 1979. Analyzing the politics of memory in Iran, the author transplants those models of explanation and interpretation to Iranian contexts, which were originally proposed for the study of ideologically motivated manipulations of history in Europe. It is assumed that the politics of memory depends on the dynamics of political and socio-economic modernization in its Islamic version. Elites actively use history and the past as symbolic resources in their attempts to legitimize regime, and the politics of memory has become one of the dimensions of Iranian political imagination, integrated into the Shia political discourse. The main forms of politically and ideologically motivated manipulations with history in the Islamization contexts are presented. The author states that the Iranian elites are active in their attempts to marginalize the Zoroastrian and pre-Islamic heritage, imagined as alien culturally and anti-Islamic traditions. Therefore, the early policy of memory in Iran was radical and repressive in its nature. The author analyzes the radical forms of the politics of memory, including the destruction of historical and cultural monuments. It is assumed that political Islam and the values of the Ummah in the historical imagination of Iran became more important factors than Iranian ethnic nationalism. In general, the article shows the interdependence of the memorial politics of the non-secular Shia regime and Iranian nationalism, despite its marginalization. The author presumes that the politics of memory belongs to the few spheres of social and cultural life of Islamic Republic of Iran, where Iranian secular intellectuals can visualize their identity and nationalist preferences. The historical politics in Iran actualizes the peculiarities of ideological struggle of the Shia regime against the Iranian political emigration, which criticizes Islamization. The results of the politics of memory also demonstrate the significant potential of the historical experience (Iranian-Iraqi war) as a stimulus for consolidation and promotion of loyalty. Therefore, the author analyzes the politics of memory as a constantly revising project, declaring the need for its further interdisciplinary analysis.