Work Package 4 investigates how affective geopolitics linked to Russia’s war against Ukraine shape politics and practices of belonging in host societies. Focusing on case studies in Finland, Germany, and Lithuania, the research examines how forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) engage with memory and memory politics in contexts deeply entangled with Russia’s own politics of memory, which escalated into so-called “memory wars” after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The project considers how the strong affective engagement of Baltic Sea Region countries in support of Ukraine is rooted in their own histories of aggression, occupation, and annexation by Russia. Against this background, WP4 explores how interpretations of the past intertwine with contemporary affective geopolitics and shape identity formation among migrants. Research combines an analysis of shifts in majority discourses on memory and belonging triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with SensArticulate ethnographic studies involving FDPs and members of Russophone diasporas in the three case study countries.
