The “NMDNI” Project

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the social reception of the Soviet past in the contemporary Russian media practice. The authors proceeded from the hypothesis that the specifics of the reproduction and perception of media images representing the Soviet period of history can be revealed through the social phenomenon of nostalgia. The authors distinguish two types of nostalgia: reflexive and restorative. The research interest is focused on the reflexive type of nostalgia as a process of formation of mythologized and idealized images of the past. In addition, the study uses the concept of post-memory proposed by M. Hirsch. Leonid Parfyonov’s Internet project “NMDNI” was used as an example of such a mediator, which also represents a reflexive type of nostalgia. The purpose of the study was the viewers’ reaction to the content of the project. Thus, the aim of the article is to study the impact of the media strategies of constructing the image of the USSR on the YouTube audience. Active viewers’ reaction in the YouTube-project “NMDNI” allows us to consider Leonid Parfyonov as a significant subject of the construction of the post-memory of the Soviet Union. As a result of the analysis of the most popular comments, it was concluded that there is a public demand for reflective nostalgia as a way of perceiving the Soviet past.

Keywords

• nostalgia
• historical memory
• cultural memory
• post-memory
• cultural trauma
• media strategy
• identity
• l. parfyonov
• nmdni
• ussr