Transitional Justice and the Former Soviet Union : Reviewing the Past, Looking toward the Future

Focusing on the understudied former Soviet republics, this volume looks at the ways in which state and non-state actors have reckoned (or not) with the legacy of communist-era mass atrocities and human rights abuses through the use of judicial and non-judicial transitional justice programs.

In the twenty-five years since the Soviet Union was dismantled, the countries of the former Soviet Union have faced different circumstances and responded differently to the need to redress and acknowledge the communist past and the suffering of their people. While some have adopted transitional justice and accountability measures, others have chosen to reject them; these choices have directly affected state building and societal reconciliation efforts. This is the most comprehensive account to date of post-Soviet efforts to address, distort, ignore, or recast the past through the use, manipulation, and obstruction of transitional justice measures and memory politics initiatives. Editors Cynthia M. Horne and Lavinia Stan have gathered contributions by top scholars in the field, allowing the disparate post-communist studies and transitional justice scholarly communities to come together and reflect on the past and its implications for the future of the region.