Living With Ghosts? Soviet Heritage in the Russian North

Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and protected for their uniqueness, monumentality, beauty and/or historical and cultural signi cance. Heritage, thus, is almost by de nition , something unques- tionably valuable and good, and of outmost importance for our wellbeing and identity. This paper takes a different position and asks what happens if we question heritage’s status as a selected reserve of desired things and traditions. Based on fieldwork conducted in contemporary settlements in the Russian North, it explores how the role and significance we ascribe heritage may come out radically altered upon facing the unruly legacies of the Soviet past.