Geopolitics in Glass Cases: Nationalist Narratives on Sino-Russian Relations in Chinese Border Museums

History museums, their narratives of a nation's past and their construction of collective memory are important but oft-neglected dimensions in international relations analyses. This article examines three border history museums on the Chinese side of the formerly contested Sino-Russian frontier. It argues that their nationalist representations of Sino-Russian history challenge assessments of the recent level of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing on the international stage and the robustness of a possible future alliance or semi-alliance. Hence, this article raises the question of the role of historical memory in the evolution of the Sino-Russian partnership since the fall of the USSR.