The “Ideologically Defective Tank”: Memory Politics and Historical Reenactment at the 2016 Pilsen Liberation Festival

Abstract

This research note focuses on the Liberation Festival in Pilsen, one of the largest annual commemorations of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The aim of the paper is to show how the legacy of the Second World War as one of the most conflicting historical topics in the CEE region serves as a central instrument in contemporary political/ideological disputes over collective memory. The authors explain how this works through the specific case of the Soviet tank, which was supposed to be a mere historical requisite in the reenactment of historical battle during the 2016 Liberation Festival, but became a symbolic object of contemporary politics – one of the issues discursively interconnected into what we call “deadly cocktail”. In doing so, the paper builds on the debates on the politics of memory, historical reenactments, and war memorials and their role in constructing collective memory and identity.