Memory Under Fire

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed’s book offers an insightful and astute analysis of the roots of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine by examining the Russian nation’s mythicized and state-sanctioned memory and Russia’s largely devolving tendencies of returning to its imperial and violent past. Shpylova-Saeed masterfully illuminates Russia’s ability to not only distort the truth and normalize violence, but also to viciously kill the living and the metaphysical, such as memory, in a neighboring country. Meticulously researched, this is a must-read book and a warning for academics, politicians, policy-makers, and everyone who wants to better understand Russia and its mnemonic project in Ukraine and beyond that divides the world into internal and external enemies, in-group and out-group people, and “them” vs “us.”

Dr. Olga Bertelsen

Associate Professor of Global Security and Intelligence

Department of Criminal Justice & National Security

Tiffin University

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed effectively illustrates how Russia’s war in Ukraine extends to the realm of memory. Through an analysis of television productions, concerts, and other types of cultural programming, Shpylova-Saeed shows that Russian actors impose their own historical narratives on Ukraine, especially in newly occupied territories, in order to erase Ukrainians’ memory of themselves. These practices are part of a broader attempt to normalize occupation and Russian authority over Ukraine, and they contribute to the genocidal project that defines the Russo-Ukrainian war. This important volume exposes these practices and places them within active scholarly debates about memory and nationhood in the 21st century.

Dr. Emily Channell-Justice

Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

"Memory on Fire" provides a masterful and urgently relevant analysis of memory politics in an authoritarian state. By meticulously tracing Russia’s weaponization of history from 1991 to 2025, this book exposes how mnemonic practices—particularly within television entertainment programming and mass concerts—have been systematically deployed to normalize military aggression against Ukraine. The author delivers a stark warning about the far-reaching consequences of constructing a national identity tethered to imperial narratives. Crucially, this study offers a compelling account of mnemonic abuse and memoricide—the systematic elimination of Ukrainian national memory—in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation. Grounded in a rich corpus of visual and textual data, this work is an invaluable resource for courses in cultural studies, communication, East European history, Slavic literature, and political sociology.

Dr. Olena Nikolayenko

Professor of political science at Fordham University

Author of "Invisible Revolutionaries: Women’s Participation in Ukraine’s Euromaidan" (2025) and "Citizens in the Making in Post-Soviet States" (2011)