The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre: the Attraction of Freedom and Power
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2018.2.313Keywords:
Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre; historical memory; cult of personality; liberalism; democratic freedomsAbstract
This paper summarises interviews with scholars from different cities regarding the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre, which has been operating in Yekaterinburg since 2015. The interviews not only concern the importance of the Yeltsin Centre as a cultural and research institution, but also historical memory about the Yeltsin era, issues of glorification and hero cults in Russian history, and, more broadly, issues connected with Yeltsin’s name. The key topic of the interviews was the peculiar dialectics of freedom and power which manifested themselves so vividly during Yeltsin’s life. The interviews took place at different times, yet the structure and logic of the talks were similar, which makes it possible for the journal to publish them as part of one talk. The interviewees were Andrey Zorin (Dr. Hab. (Philology), Professor; Oxford University, United Kingdom), Evgeny Emelianov (PhD (History); Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre, Yekaterinburg), Elena Burlina (Dr. Hab. (Philosophy), Professor; Samara State Medical University), Boris Orlov and Irina Lisovets (PhDs (History); Ural Federal University).