A comparative study of the representation of Russian and British memories in the social and governmental spheres in Iran

In Iran's foreign policy, the non-intervention principle is beyond the legal principle and has a fundamental aspect in Iranian philosophy and worldview in its view of the outside world. It is as if the primary function and primary concern in relation to outside borders is to combat foreign intervention, rather than cooperation or interaction. This perception has led to the formation of a phenomenon that in this study has been called “the metamemory of stranger intervention”. Two examples of the most important audience of Iranian memories in this regard are Russia and Britain. However, the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has both extroverted and active aspects and has also established relations with the great powers and even its historical enemies according to their political, security and economic needs. The question of this research is what is Iran's politics of memory towards Russia and Britain? In response, it is said that Iran's memory policy towards Britain is based on the "politics of remembrance" of past hostilities and has full legitimacy due to consensus memories and the matching of formal and informal memory, but in relation to Russia it is based on the politics of forgetting and the use of silencing techniques and alternative narration, , but this approach has created resistance in the realm of informal memory and the attitude of inconsistency between the present orientation and the common perception of people's memories of Russia has provoked social reactions and delegitimize the development of relations with Russia.