James V. Wertsch
Washington University in St. Louis

Just as ideas about “life scripts” have been useful in the study of individual autobiographical memory, the notion of “narrative template” can provide insight into how collectives understand the past—and also envision the future.  Such templates are schematic representations shared by members of collectives such as modern nations.  In addition to serving as cognitive means for understanding the past and future, they provide a foundation for mobilizing political sentiment, including negative sentiments toward others.  These claims will be explored in the case of a narrative template that has been used extensively over the last two centuries about Russia’s special mission for humankind.  The interpretations generated by this narrative template sometimes surprise members of other “mnemonic communities,” but in Russia they are widespread, both in the public at large and among political leaders.  These views reflect general ways of understanding events from the past in ways that view Russia as both victim and victor over alien enemies, and they are behind renewed discussions of “Eurasianism” that place Russia at the center of a grand civilization of the future.