A Foundation for Russia? Memories of World War II for Young Russians

Abstract

How do young Russians relate to World War II and the violence of the wartime period? This article explores the degree to which societal and elite-driven narratives about history converge in the context of a crucial historical anniversary. We demonstrate that the memory of World War II serves as an integrative historical event for an abstract, temporally transcendent idea of Russia. Our analysis draws on focus groups conducted among young people of different political orientation in June 2019, survey data targeting urban youth, conducted over three consecutive years (2018–2020), and cultural artifacts such as film and literature. There is significant overlap between the views that young people express about victory and commemoration and the prevailing cultural, political, educational, and historical discourses. However, there is significant controversy when it comes to the actual ways in which the current political regime remembers the victory, the role of Stalin, and how to understand violence against the civilian population. The shared historical view that the Putin regime has created therefore remains contested. Disagreement limits the extent to which memory can be a foundation for today’s political Russia as young respondents differentiate between their support for an abstract ideal of Russia and the existing political system.

Defending History? The Impact of Context and Speaker in Russia

“…In Russia, recall of the Great Patriotic War parallels how collective traumata sustain group identities elsewhere (see Fuchs 2012;Giesen 2004;Panossian 2002). Because of the war's mythologized status, the views that Russia's leadership articulates today about it largely coincide with those held by society as a whole, with little dissent outside well-defined circles (Krawatzek and Friess 2022). 4 Victory Day, which takes place annually on May 9 and increasingly recalls the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany in an unreflectively heroic and Russocentric manner (Soroka and Krawatzek 2021), represents the most important commemorative event for 95% of Russians (VTsIOM 2020b).When COVID-19 caused Victory Day ceremonies to move online in 2020, around 60% of Russia's population still engaged with these activities and expressed largely positive feelings toward them (VTsIOM 2020a).…”