WWII and XXth Century Wars in the Collective Memory of different generations of Russians: visual methods research

Abstract

The collective memory about wars is an object of study, as well as the formation and upbringing within the educational process. The category of generation, collective memory, and psychological trauma are considered as central in the framework of the study described here. It is assumed that wars are significant for the formation of psycho-traumatic experience of a generation. Using visual methods, in which people were asked using self-report to evaluate their feelings and emotions when looking at photographs of various wars of the twentieth century, the hypothesis was tested that the role of the Second World War is the most traumatic compared to other wars due to its role, proximity in time and media effect. The conclusions are drawn about the absence of fundamental differences in the memory of World War II by all generations of Russians (N = 548 people) in all emotional and traumatic parameters, except for the parameter of feeling of pride in the results of the war.