The Politics of Memory: Remembering the Baltic Way 20 Years after 1989

Abstract

Abstract On 23 August 1989, two million Balts joined hands in a human chain that stretched through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. How has this phenomenon of solidarity against the Soviet regime and historical remembrance of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact been narrated and commemorated in the 20 years that followed? This article highlights the memory and commemoration of the Baltic Way in Latvia and identifies agents and contesting narratives in memory politics. It introduces the concept of commemoration spectacle, a collective ritual untethered from the burdens of the past or ‘grand narratives’ of history, which subsumes struggles over memory beneath show and spectacle.