The aim of the project is to analyze the practices of remembering the victims of the last century political repressions in Europe. The importance of the project is due to the fact that memory policy has failed or was only partially successful in some European countries. In particular, this statement applies to some post-communist countries, and especially to Russia, where the state refuses to recognize its guilt for the deaths of many citizens.

Indeed, the process of remembering victims of political repressions faces many ethical and aesthetic problems and depends on many factors. The choice of commemorative strategy is not only determined by the political situation in a country, but also depends on what kind of death the victim died, as well as the problem of the presence or absence of his/her remains. The only fact that a person is killed means that this death remains off the “normal” economy of life and death. Moreover, since the victim is not buried and his/her remains are not identified, the commemorative strategy cannot be the same as in case of an “ordinary” death.

The question raised in the project is that of the adequacy of strategies of remembering to the harm done to the victims and their family members. The project is interdisciplinary and includes elements of history, philosophy and anthropology.

Cet article analyse, dans la perspective politique et esthétique, le phénomène de la destruction des visages des « ennemis du peuple » sur les photographies de groupe dans la Russie stalinienne. Il a pour base empirique les photographies découvertes par l’auteur au cours des recherches aux archives de plusieurs villes russes, ces photographies portant différentes traces, telles que les biffages ou les notes manuscrites laissées par les policiers staliniens. L’analyse de ces traces ouvre plusieurs pistes de réflexion, en rendant possible une interrogation conjointe sur la nature de la terreur et la signification politique de la photographie.

A full-length study is available here.