ABSTRACT
The chapter is devoted to the mobilizing function of memory that forms the foundation for the manipulation of social memory (such as tendencies to selectively forget, memorialize and abuse memory). Through the analysis of narratives about the Soviet war in Afghanistan, it will examine how collective memory discourse becomes structured over time after traumatic events and how memory’s regulative function works to construct collective identity, including the processes of narrative normalization (what ‘should’ and ‘should not’ be mentioned), the structural boundaries of narrative and forms of retelling, and the formation of standard, imperative expressions of indebtedness to the past.
