In this article, the author examines the origins and definition of the concept of realms of memory, and demonstrates the possibilities of its use as a research optic. The reason for the author’s attention is the established tradition of identifying realms of memory with material objects, which does not correspond to Pierre Nora’s original intention and the meaning of the term. In order to meet this challenge, the author first offers a brief description of Nora’s project and his own proposed definition of the lieu de mémoire. Nora identifies three aspects to better define the core concept of his project: materiality, symbolism, functionality; he attributes key importance to symbolism in particular. Next, the author looks at the origins of the project and its predecessors. The author argues that realms of memory act as an extension of Halbwachs’s concept of “social framework” and Yeats’s reinterpreted idea of mnemonic places. Nora’s project, being possible only in a situation of a rejection of linear causality of historical narrative, intersects with the idea of Foucault’s “archaeology of knowledge” and Benjamin’s romantic anti-historicism. However, instead of their conflicting perspective, it offers a diplomatic consensus of lieu de mémoire. The author then presents a perspective on Nora’s project by F. Hartog, who sees in the project of realms of memory a new model of time and historiography. Next, in order to explore the applicability Nora’s optics, the author outlines the primary features associated with the realms of memory. Thus, a realm of memory is a “remnant” of the past associated with certain commemorative practices, subject to multiple interpretations, capable of change but retaining its significance. Leveling the complexity and debatability of memory sites, as well as the conflictuality inherent in them, reduces their use in scientific discourse to a metaphor or rhetorical figure. Following Hartog, the author proposes to view Nora’s places of memory as a heuristic tool which represents a certain optic for research into the past. Understanding realms of memory as an aesthetic concept makes it possible to interpret them as an epistemological framework, the use of which can moderate the ideological interests and political biases of the researcher, to talk about nation and national identity without nationalism, and to consider memory sites as a way to research the local past. 

The paper offers a general overview of the transformation of the politics of memory in Poland from 1989 to 2021 in the context of the post-socialist transition market economy, simultaneous processes of nation-state building, European integration and the building of regional alliances with neighbouring states. The past is seen here as an instrument of both internal political struggle and foreign policy. In post-socialist Poland, two competing paradigms for working with the past have emerged. The first focused on liberal and conciliatory patriotism aimed at integration into the EU, and tried to take into account the historical narratives of neighbours and national minorities. The second paradigm is nationalist, critical of ideological trends in the EU, aimed at eliminating internal and external enemies, as well as encouraging national pride. Particular attention is paid to new performative techniques of public experience of the past and historical reenactment in the process of reassembling Polish collective memory. The Law and Justice Party radically rethought not only the socialist experience but also the years of post-socialist transformation.
Through mass public history based on spectacle and reenactment, the Law and Justice Party created a mythopractic that effectively mobilized groups excluded from the benefits of free-market transformation by identifying them with "cursed soldiers" — an anti-communist guerrilla from 1940-1950. 

The use of landscape terminology in the studies of urban memory may seem redundant against the background of the established languages of description and discursive practices of commemoration. Nevertheless, the variety of already identified landscapes and approaches to their study illustrates the heuristic potential of the concept. Firstly, the landscape itself indicates a topography, a nuclear connection with the place. Secondly, a spatial frame is set — be it a city, knowledge or some memories associated with a certain territory. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the landscape makes it possible to connect dissimilar elements into something whole. In the landscape, the policy of memory is surprisingly manifested — what to highlight and place in the foreground, and what is better not to notice and ignore. On the other hand, spontaneous elements associated with the personal memories of residents and urban communities rhizomatically “sprout” through such a design of memory. The article highlights elements of the memorial landscape structure: content, spatial, temporal, communicative-activity and procedural. Its features are demonstrated on the example of two small Russian cities: Inta (Komi Republic, Subpolar Urals) and Kotelnich (Kirov Region); equal in size, but differing in their duration of existence. 

In the article, we undertook an analysis of the prospects described in the research literature in connection with overcoming the linear interpretations of time and the transition to the concept of multiple times. We argue that it is possible to link two relatively autonomous objects on the basis of which they are discussed: the sphere of historical knowledge and the theme of memory. We argue that, overcome at the level of theories of the historical process, the linear idea of time is preserved at the level of the creation of national histories and finds its expression in ethnocentrism or methodological individualism. Overcoming ethnocentrism should be associated not so much with the search for a more balanced attitude to specific interpretations of the historical past, associated with the inclusion of injustice shown in relation to other peoples in their own national histories, but with the development of alternative concepts of time that constitute the very formats of writing stories. We believe that the prospects for overcoming linear interpretations of time are associated with the development of the theory of multiple times. We argue that the constructivist approach should be considered the most heuristic theoretical and methodological basis for its implementation. We believe that modern interpretations of the heterogeneity of time imply the recognition of the mobility of time boundaries between the past, present, and future. We put forward the thesis that the criterion for distinguishing the modes of time should be considered the difference in the formats of the organization of knowledge. Correspondingly, we offer an interpretation of the historical past in the format of historical experience. As one of the consequences of this thesis, we affirm the need to revise ideas about the forms of influence of the past on the present. We argue that the recognition of the theory of the heterogeneity of time gives rise to relativism in determining the significance of different time streams in different social groups and cultures. We believe that the recognition of the theory of the diversity of temporal flows for different social and cultural groups presupposes the implementation of a procedure for synchronizing the data of temporal flows, which, on the one hand, makes it possible to overcome relativism, and, on the other hand, allochronism. Furthermore, we emphasize that synchronization should be based on the concept of modernity, which in turn is built on the basis of the project of the future and thus allows for the selection of various ideas about time. 

The article demonstrates the possibility of applying an ANT to the analysis of religious monuments. The study of religion within the framework of memory studies demonstrates the realization of a trend laid down in the works of Durkheim regarding the distinction between religion and sacralization as a social phenomenon. From this point of view, religion cannot be regarded as an isolated social institution, but is a way of expressing the functional need to form a sacralized set of social practices and rituals that contribute to the consolidation of society and the strengthening of collective identity. At the same time, in a pluralistic society, the preservation of this function by religion appears to be methodologically archaic, which suggests the involvement of new theoretical approaches that can problematize the place of religion in social space, whilst demonstrating the heterogeneity and fragmentation of religious practices. As a new theoretical model, the article proposes to use the variant of ANT presented in the works of J. Law. Its main principles are the use of spatial metaphors in describing social objects, as well as emphasizing the material status of objects that conflict with spatial configurations. The application of this approach to the analysis of religious monuments allows us to talk about the distinction between the material and network projection of monuments. A religious monument is not just a product of the representation of a certain symbolic system, but also has its own status as an actor. On the one hand, it becomes part of existing network of interactions, and, on the other, it creates new connections and new antitheses that transform the existing memorial landscape, giving rise to new forms of spatial configurations.