On the digital front-line

Opuscula Historica Upsaliensia, no. 62

This anthology explores the memory work performed by Baltic and Central and East European far-right actors in the online space. Situated at the crossroads between memory studies, far-right studies, and media studies, the volume's seven chapters show how a wide range of far-right actors, from small movements to major parties, have exploited digital communication technologies in order to establish their plays with the past in the mainstream discourses of their respective national contexts. With a focus on the online memory work of the far right in Austria, Belarus, Czechia, Lithuania, Romania, Sweden, and Ukraine, the anthology dissects the nexus between politics, media, and memory to show how digital communication have empowered the memory work of marginal but dangerous societal actors. As the different contributions show, the online space has raised the visibility and success of organised intolerant groups and, consequently, it has magnified the societal impact of their memory work. Thanks to digital media, the memory work of the far right can compete on an equal footing with state-endorsed memory politics. Through manipulation of the historical narrative and thereby the perception and understanding of the past in civil societies, on websites, blogs, and social media, the far right has succeeded in overcoming its marginality and normalising its messages of intolerance on a continental scale.