Abstract
This dissertation examines how different forms of nuclear memory shape contemporary governance and political possibilities in Russia and Kazakhstan. I argue that nuclear governance operates through cultural frameworks that determine whose knowledge counts, which territories are deemed safe or dangerous, and how responsibility for nuclear harms is allocated. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at nuclear museums, archival research, and interviews with diverse stakeholders including nuclear workers, people who suffered from radiation exposure, and anti-nuclear activists, I develop a theoretical framework distinguishing between bounded, organized forms of remembrance (through monuments, anniversaries, and official narratives) and embedded memory where interpretations persist through institutional practices, spatial arrangements, and technical protocols. The analysis reveals how these different memory forms create distinct political possibilities: while bounded remembrance provides opportunities for political engagement, its static nature often inadequately serves affected communities; meanwhile, embedded memory operates below political visibility, requiring activist intervention to transform these interpretations into contestable political claims. This dynamic has significant consequences for nuclear justice, as those whose experiences persist primarily in embedded forms face systematic barriers to political recognition and remediation. Beyond nuclear studies, this research contributes to understanding how memory forms distribute political possibility and responsibility across different contexts of historical harm, offering insights for environmental justice and for post-imperial and post-industrial transitions where effective redress requires strategies that attend to and work across multiple memory forms.
