Published on 16-10-2026, Last modified on 16-10-2026
Public Lecture “Nostalgia as a Propaganda Tool” by Olga Bubich
Credit: Olga Bubich, 2018, “Bigger than I” project.
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Why are authoritarian and populist regimes of different parts of the world obsessed with rewriting the past? How has memory turned into one more battlefield and why do memory wars matter not less than physical wars? Drawing on insights from cognitive psychology, media theory, and political sociology, the lecture presented by Belarus-born essayist, visual artist and memory researcher Olga Bubich – currently a guest of PEN Vlaanders – focusing on concrete case studies of today’s Russia, explores the ways digital “attention economy” and propaganda make use of memory’s inherent mallability, plant and feed fears and hatred, and weaponize nostalgia as a vehicle of promoting totalitarian and ultra-right ideas.