Projects to preserve personal memories: Digital archives and participatory culture

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of Russian digital projects to preserve personal memories, which include “Oral History”, “European Memory about the GULAG”, the Obninsk digital project, PastVu, Relikva, etc. The goal of the research is to answer the question whether these projects are able to form public alternatives to offcial constructions of the past and ways in which that past is to be studied. The qualitative research is theoretically and methodologically based on notions of memory theory, public and digital history as well as media memory and digital network memory. Problems of participatory culture in digital historical projects are also studied. The authors put forward an analytical model based on uncovering the aims and themes of digital projects, the particulars of their funding, the role of professional historians and the participatory practices of the audience.