Historical memory as a category of constitutional law

Abstract

Introduction. Historical memory is an integral part of national identity and defines the core values and principles of life in society. Legal norms in the text of the Constitution of Russia that consolidate the concept of historical development of the Russian state and establish new obligations of the state to honor the memory of defenders of the Fatherland, to ensure the protection of historical truth and to prevent belittling the significance of the people’s feat in defense of the Fatherland allow us to talk about the formation of a new category in the constitutional law – the category of historical memory. Theoretical analysis. General theoretical understanding of legal categories allows us to highlight such features as abstraction, universality, generality, objectivity, content, consistency. All these qualities are inherent in constitutional categories; their features also include a high degree of axiology and fundamental character, which, due to the properties of the Constitution as a basic political and legal act, define the relationship between the state, an individual and society as a whole. Empirical analysis. The analysis of the formation of national memory in pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods shows that the concept of historical memory was commonly ideological in nature. The concept of national history was absent in Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted on December 12, 1993. The 2020 Amendments to the Constitution were also intended to correct this gap and include provisions aimed at creating the concept of historical memory.  Results. The concept of historical memory, as it is presented in the current version of the Constitution, is aimed at: establishing the idea of continuity in the development of the Russian state; justification for unity of the state, formed as a result of a thousand-year history; conditionality of spiritual and moral values by tradition; indication of the special role of the state in protecting historical memory.

Keywords

• constitutional and legal category
• historical memory
• national concept of history
• historical heritage