This volume explores the political utility and consequences of memory laws with a focus on how militant memory laws frame, underpin and generate international conflicts.Proceeding from Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine, this examination plots how memory wars have preceded, partially led to, and encouraged the outbreak of the war itself via Russian propaganda. It also offers a broader perspective looking at developments in neighbouring countries such as Poland and Hungary. Bringing together scholars with diverse perspectives, this book provides both analysis and conceptual reflection for scholars assessing the politics of memory laws.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER1. SECTION ONE: Memory Laws and Policies in Russia1.1. An Unspeakable Past: Why and How History Became an Object of Criminal Law in Russia1.2. Memory Laws and Policies in Russia After the Annexation of Crimea and Occupation of Donbas1.3. Putin's Memory Policies in the Context of Military Aggression in Ukraine2. SECTION TWO: Memory Laws and Policies in Ukraine2.1. Ukrainian Memory Laws and Policies Before 20142.2. Ukrainian Decommunization Laws of 20152.3. Ukrainian Memory Laws and Policies in the Context of 2022 Russian Aggression3. SECTION THREE: Neighbours Actively Involved in the Regional Memory Wars3.1. Wounds Unhealed: Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Russian Memory Wars Before 20223.2. Memory Laws and Policies in Belarus3.3. "Critical Situations" and Mnemonic Legislation: Memory Politics in the Baltic States and the War in Ukraine3.4. From Threat to Example: The Transformation of Russia's Role in Hungary's Memory Governance3.5. Memory Wars and Policies in Finland4. SECTION FOUR: Shaping European Law and Politics in the Context of Memory Wars4.1 German Prototype for Memory Laws and Policies in Europe in the Context of Putin's Instrumentalization of Denazification4.2 Memory Laws and Policies in the EU and Council of Europe in the Context of Russian Military Aggression from 2014 to 20224.3 European Court of Human Rights as a Substitute Nuremberg for the Soviet Crimes in the Baltic States?4.4. The Looking Glass War: Russian Aggression against Ukraine and the Lessons of World War II in International Memory Politics5. EPILOGUE - The Battle for the Past: War and Memory in the Post-Soviet Space