Mnemonic naturalism: Anti-communist memory politics and multiculturalism in Canada

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, debates on how to remember the communist past have gained prominence, focusing on symbolic, moral, and mnemonic capitals. Aligning with an “international current” of anti-communist commemoration, Canada’s Memorial to the Victims of Communism extends these debates to a country with no history of state-led communism. Using frameworks in cultural sociology and memory studies, this article analyzes the Memorial to the Victims of Communism’s “living” digital archive to examine its socio-political work. Our findings reveal that—unlike in Europe, where mnemonic capital often rewrites national narratives—the Memorial to the Victims of Communism redistributes mnemonic capital along cultural lines and reinforces Canadian national identity through disputes over name, design, and location. While Conservatives sought to embed anti-communism into Canadian identity, the Liberal iteration universalizes victimhood through an aestheticized logic we call mnemonic naturalism. This memorial reflects broader tensions in Canadian multiculturalism, consolidating symbolic capital while erasing historical complexity and diverse immigrant experiences.