Nar. umjet. 46/1, 2009, pp. 121-132, M. Benovska-Sabkova, Church Kraevedenie: The... Original scientific paper Received: 30th Jan. 2009 Accepted: 19th March 2009 UDK 32:316.42](470) 121 MILENA BENOVSKA-SABKOVA New Bulgarian University, Department of History of Culture, Sofia CHURCH KRAEVEDENIE: THE POLITICS OF MEMORY AND RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA 1 This paper is going to address the proliferation of so called church "kraevedenie" ["cerkovnoe kraevedenie"] as a manifestation of the politics of memory as intersection of religious and secular activities. It is based on field research carried out in the city of Kaluga (for three moths in 2006 and in 2007). "Kraevedenie" includes expertise in local history and in local cultural heritage. Church kraevedenie, on the other hand, has gained momentum after 2000, after President Putin has come into power. This could be explained by the aspiration to strengthen national-affirmative views in Russian society. Church kraevedenie is, therefore, an aspect of the return to Orthodoxy as (historic) identifi- cation, after abandoning Soviet political identity. Key words: Russia; politics of memory; post-socialism; Orthodox Chri- stianity; kraevedenie Introduction. An orientation to the past, whether idealised or imagined, is an obvious particularity of social practices connected to the current religious life in post-Soviet Russia. Besides, this orientation implies not just Orthodoxy, but certain social practices of secular character, as well. How to explain the focus on the past which is imprinted on various aspects and manifestations of the symbolic practices, otherwise projected over the complexities of current everyday life of the Russians? Which are the manifestations of the politics of memory on the local level? These have been questions which intrigued me during the fieldwork in Kaluga in September 2006 and during July and August 2007, and these are, respectively, the research questions to which the present article is looking to find answers. It is the aim of the present work to 1 This article was written during my stay as a guest at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, in 2007. The research is based on fieldwork (2006-2007) financed by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. I express my appreciation to this Institute.