Grigory Grigoryev

Since 2017, Grigory Grigoryev has been conducting ethnographic research on collective memory, nationalism, and identity formation in the Northern Caucasus, focusing on the interplay between oral historical narrations and social dynamics in Dagestan. His work examines how Dagestani ethnic groups—primarily the Avar, Dargin, and Kumyk peoples—construct and maintain their collective identities through temporal stratification and selective interpretation of local history, particularly surrounding the Russian Civil War period (1917-1922).

Grigory’s methodology combines anthropological fieldwork with oral history techniques, allowing him to investigate how historical knowledge is constructed at the community level. He examines how local heroes from the Civil War era embody ethnic ideals and aspirations while functioning as symbolic resources that reveal ongoing tensions between 'traditional' and 'pure' Islam, attitudes toward Imperial, Soviet, and Russian rule, and other internal conflicts affecting this multiethnic region.

Grigory has recently completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Helsinki (2024) with a dissertation titled “Collective Memory of Modern Dagestanis about the Local Heroes of the Russian Civil War: Heroic Narratives and Ethnic Identity”. Grigory is the recipient of research fellowships at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki and CREECA, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests encompass social anthropology, anthropology of religion, nationalism, memory studies, and ethnic-religious conflicts in the Northern Caucasus. During his time at CREEES Grigory is hoping to prepare several research papers based on his PhD dissertation.