Virtual museums of the Soviet Atlantis

The construction of hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs in different regions and under different historical circumstances raises a number of common problems. It causes landscape and climate changes, flooding of vast territories, irreversible loss of archaeological heritage and historical habitats going underwater. The construction of hydroelectric power plants leads to mass relocations, loss of heritage and identity, as well as destroys ties in traditional communities. The memory of the negative consequences of large infrastructure-related projects is often censored and pushed out of the public space. The article discusses current practices of commemorating the negative effects of Soviet hydropolitics in the format of a virtual museum. The wide availability of digital tools allows non-professional historians, witnesses and their descendants to be included in memorial activities. Internet sites are becoming places of memory and communication for memorial communities. The article considers specific features of the representation of hydraulic engineering issues in the virtual spaces of corporate museums of modern hydraulic corporations, museum sites and virtual projects of memorial initiatives «from below». It also reveals the peculiarities of communicative management, as well as artifacts and collections that can be found on information resources. It focuses mainly on virtual representation of narratives and the formation of memorial communities’ network.