The Memory Politics of Becoming European: The East European Subalterns and the Collective Memory of Europe

The situation in collective memory studies that share a nexus with

the discipline of International Relations (IR) is currently reflective

of the traditionally West-centric writing of European history. This

order of things has become increasingly challenged after the eastern

enlargement of the European Union (EU). This article examines

Poland’s and the Baltics’ recent attempts to enlarge the mnemonic

vision of ‘the united Europe’ by placing their ‘subaltern pasts’ in contest

with the conventionally Western European-bent understanding of the

consequences of World War II in Europe. I argue that their endeavours

to wrench the ‘European mnemonical map’ apart in order to become

more congruent with the different historical experiences within the

enlarged EU encapsulate the curious trademark of Polish and Baltic

post-Cold War politics of becoming European: their combination of

simultaneously seeking recognition from and resisting the hegemonic

‘core European’ narrative of what ‘Europe’ is all about.