Memory in the Digital Age: The “Stalin's Time” Representation Peculiarities in Video Game Media of the 2000s

Introduction. The contemporary media environment is very much in reference to the past. However, it is not entirely clear to what extent this is due to its digital nature. To answer this question, we will dissect the phenomenon of the digital archive. The archive is not a physical object or a specific place, but a metaphor proposed by M. Foucault and has been actively used in cultural studies since the 1990s. Let us analyze the phenomenon of the digital archive on the example of the videogame medium. The plot of nostalgia for the Stalin era in video games of the 2000s will be a representative material for analysis. Content. The digital archive, unlike the analog archive, has three properties: communicative (aimed at transmitting rather than storing information), agentic (usurps the possibility of contrubuting memories), and procedural (exists only in virtual space). The digital archive we are studying was formed under the influence of reflective nostalgia. Reflective nostalgia (described by S. Boym) is a type of post-Soviet nostalgia common among Soviet dissidents. Its inherent humor and irony can be expressed in satirical, absurd forms in certain cases. It is in this negative vein that attitudes towards the Stalinist era were formed in the late Soviet and post-Soviet period. This is especially evident in the video game You Are Empty (2006). You Are Empty shows the player an alternative history of the USSR in the 1950s, where the apocalypse happened. In the digital archive under study, we encounter a recoding of the characteristic features of Stalinist culture (reimagined public spaces, visual images and cultural forms) in favor of a satirical statement. This can be determined by referring to the studies of E. Dobrenko, I. Kaspe, and V. Paperny. Also, in the videogame medium we can find the expression of all three properties of the digital archive. Conclusions. Although the original context of the memorial space was once defined by analog media, as the format changes, the information transmitted is also distorted. The reason for this is that memory in virtual space is largely conditioned by digital archives. The digital medium exists only in the virtual world, distorts the recollection and changes the essence of the act of remembering. Dissident criticism in the format of a digital archive becomes a high-tech attraction.