Everything for the Lulz: Historical Memes and World War II Memory on Lurkomor’e

The article explores interactions between digital media and cultural memory in post-Soviet countries by focusing on internet memes related to World War II. It introduces the concept of historical internet memes, which are groups of digital content units associated with a historical event or a personality. The article uses a selection of World War II memes from the online encyclopaedia of Russian web folklore, Lurkomor’e, to draw comparisons between historical and non-historical internet memes. By using a quantifiable approach, it investigates patterns in the origins, methods of dissemination, and functions of historical internet memes, and provides a basic framework for their future study. Finally, the article explores the role of human agency in historical meme-making by focusing on the role of the Lurkomor’e community in the production and dissemination of memes.