Memorial Narratives of WWII Partisans and Genocide in Belarus

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Goujon
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nazi Occupation ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Soviet Time ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Soviet Historiography

The memory of WWII always played an important role in Belarus, which was characterized as a “Partisan Republic” during the Soviet time. Soviet historiography and memorial narrative emphasized the heroics of the resistance to fascism and allowed only a description of the crimes of the Nazis. New ways of looking at war events appeared during the perestroika and after the independence of the country. But after Alexander Lukashenko came to power as president in 1994, a neo-Soviet version of the past was adopted and spread. The Great Patriotic War (GPW) has become an increasingly publicized event in the official memorial narrative as the culminating moment in Belarusian history. Since the mid-2000s, this narrative tends to be nationalized in order to testify that the Belarusian people’s suffering and resistance behavior were among the highest ones during WWII. Political and academic dissenting voices to the Belarusian authoritarian regime try to downplay this official narrative by pointing out that the Belarusians were also victims of the Stalinist repression, and their attitude towards the Nazi occupation was more than ambivalent. Behind the memorial discourses, two competitive versions of Belarusian national identity can be distinguished. According to the official version, Belarusian identity is based on the East-Slavic identity that incorporates the Soviet history in its contemporary development. According to the opposition, it is based on a national memory that discards the Soviet past as a positive one.

History, Commemoration and National Preoccupation

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public History ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
History Writing ◽  
National History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
National Memory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Britain

This volume explores the commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Lord Nelson's death over the past two centuries. It includes the celebrations of 2005, which saw hundreds of official, commercial, and popular events celebrating and commemorating the bicentenary of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. Leading historians of Britain and France reflect critically on complex notions of remembrance, celebration, honouring, and commemoration. Taking historical snapshots of the commemoration of Nelson at his death, a century later in 1905, and in contemporary Britain, the contributors ask: who drives the commemoration of historical anniversaries and to what ends? Which Nelson, or Nelsons, have had a role in national memory over the past two centuries? And who identifies with Nelson today? Focusing on Britain, but looking also at imperial and French contexts, the papers consider how memoirs, history writing, visual and modern media and museums, and official and unofficial interests, contribute to keeping and shaping memory. As the changing manner of memorializing key moments in national history allows historians to study cultural meanings and interpretations of national identity, the contributors to this volume exhort the wider profession to engage critically with ‘public history’. This work is about the history of memory and commemoration and will be of interest those with general interests in naval, maritime, cultural and public history.

scholarly journals Las memorias nacionales: conflictos y límites / National Memories: Conflicts and Limitations

2017 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Francisco Erice Sebares
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Identidad Nacional ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory

This article examines the relevance of the concept of national memory and its limits, defending the convenience of using an idea of collective memory which includes nations, these understood as specific communities of memory. It also analyses some key mechanisms in the diffusion by the States of a narrative on the past that is linked to the construction of national identity and legitimation of politics in the present. This diffusion is regarded as in a usually conflictive interaction with memories of groups or smaller collectives, as well as with other national communities.Key WordsCollective memory, communities of memory, national memory, teaching of history, commemorations, national identityResumenEste artículo se interroga sobre la pertinencia del concepto de memoria nacional y los límites de su aplicación, y defiende la utilidad de una noción de memoria colectiva extensible a las naciones entendidas como especificas comunidades de memoria. También analiza a algunos mecanismos claves en la difusión, desde los Estados, de un relato sobre el pasado ligado a la construcción de la identidad nacional y la legitimación de las políticas del presente. La difusión de la memoria nacional se entiende en interacción, generalmente conflictiva, con las memorias de grupos y entidades menores, o con las de otras comunidades nacionales.Palabras claveMemoria colectiva, comunidades de memoria, memoria nacional, enseñanza de la historia, conmemoraciones, identidad nacional. 

Democracy, Solidarity and Post-Nationalism

2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 604-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Spinner-Halev
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
National Group ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory

Nearly all democratizing states are also nationalizing, but this connection has not been adequately explained. A few scholars argue that nationality supplies democracy with a pre-political identity, while others maintain that nationality is often developed and manipulated by elites. I argue that national identity is a political identity, sustained by political institutions for political purposes, though this identity may contain some ethnic or abstract principles within it. The solidarity that national identity creates is most needed by democracies when they first emerge. Democratizing states need to build up institutions and create a culture of sacrifice, which they can do by creating a sense of solidarity among citizens. This solidarity is not only in the interests of the elites, but also benefits those in the dominant national group. The solidarity created by national identity is crucial to institution building, but it is also a source of inequality, since those not seen as members will often face discrimination or worse. The unfortunate side of nationalism has led some theorists to argue that liberal democracies need to move toward post-nationalism if they are to reach the promise of equality and individual rights for all. Doing so, however, means separating identity from the state. I doubt this is possible; and I argue that post-nationalism means forgetting about national memories. Yet to honor rightly the past victims of nationalism we must engage in acts of remembrance. We cannot both bear the legacy of the past and easily move toward post-nationalism. I work through these issues partly by way of Habermas who tries, unsuccessfully in my view, to reconcile post-nationalism with the retention of national memory.

scholarly journals The Problem of Memory Preservation and Identity Formation (on the Example of the Great Patriotic War Memory)

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-50
Author(s):  
S.N. Pogodin ◽  
Z.Z. Bakhturidze
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Destructive Effect ◽  
Civic Consciousness ◽  
War Memory ◽  
Soviet People ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Educational Task ◽  
The Individual

Significant events of the past have always been the most important aspects in the structuring of national memory. Obviously, they also become key elements in the formation of identity. Therefore, the use of various falsifications, distortions of history, and manipulations in this area seems to be quite logical in the framework of the ongoing information war. The devaluation and depersonalization of the Great Patriotic War memory, of the irreplaceable losses and sacrifices of the Soviet people, of exploits in the name of the Motherland and in the name of victory over fascism have crushing power, destroy the integration potential of the Soviet past, have a destructive effect on the formation of an identity that should be associated with the correct interpretation of the heroic role of the Soviet people. Pride in the past of one's country contributes to the formation of civic consciousness and a positive awareness of one's belonging. The roots of this perception are in the stories of eyewitnesses of those events, which are becoming less and less every year, in the process of socialization, in school history textbooks. In conditions of freedom of choice, with an ever-increasing virtual component of life, in which there are opportunities for the individual to immerse themselves in the format of a completely different socio-cultural space, with a different system of values and meanings, the global elite imposes new standards and determines the field of choice for modern youth. At the same time, our educational task is the preservation and reproduction of memory for future generations.

scholarly journals Mitologia radziecka (beletrystyka i reportaż rosyjski XX i XXI wieku)

Politeja ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (55) ◽  
pp. 225-250
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Duda
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
The Russian Federation

Soviet Mythology (Russian Belles-Lettres and Non-fiction Literature in 20th and 21st Century)Soviet history, since just after the October Revolution until the present day, has been full of myths created by the communist ideology and politics. In the past, these numerous myths (together with utopias) helped people to believe in the existence of a paradise on the Earth. The most popular of these myths are the myth of the victim, the myth of a hero fighting for ‘the peace in the whole world’, the myth connected with the figure of a Leader, Teacher showing how people have to speak, behave and act, the myth of the Great Patriotic War… The last one is especially well known all over the world because Soviet politicians always consider themselves winners who had regained freedom. These days the Great Patriotic War myth is used or even overused in the Russian Federation because people are looking for an event which could connect all former Soviet nations. Books written by Russian authors are the proof of this tendency.

scholarly journals Archive as a Depository of Shared Memories, History and Identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-196
Author(s):  
Viktorija Kudra Beroš ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Institutional Identity ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory ◽  
State Archives

Given their role in the preservation and protection of an authentic and credible trace of the past (documents) and, consequently, national identity, archives are considered places of choice for interpreting and representing shared memory and the past. Emphasising authenticity and credibility frames archives as seemingly neutral institutions in terms of politics and ideology. However, the trace that provides an insight into the “truth and knowledge” of our (individual and collective) past “that makes us what we are” needs to be questioned. Since the archiving procedure is based on the processes of inclusion and exclusion in all segments of everyday interpretation of material, the archive is a political and ideological institution that takes its place in the order of political power. This paper discusses the role of the archive as a place of preservation of “shared past and history” as an important part of national identity through the prism of institutional apparatuses or forms of knowledge/power (example of architecture) and technologies or manners of articulating and practising knowledge/power (example of everyday practice). The paper points to the role of archives in the (re)interpretation and (re)vision of shared memories, collective history and national identity on the examples of the Croatian State Archives and Archives of Yugoslavia, in the context of changes in the symbolic and political order (SFRY/Croatia). By constructing national memory and narratives of nationality through narratives of history and memory, and by constructing “truth” (knowledge) through exclusion and inclusion, archives (just like museums and libraries) have a role to play in “imagining” the community–nation. Or, according to the theory of performative identity (Foritier 2000), everyday practice that takes place in archives is an institutional identity practice that contributes to the unification and homogenisation of the community through a policy of interpretation by performing and producing (performative) memory (collective identity formation).

Heroic National Memory: The Story of a Participant in the Great Patriotic War

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-40
Author(s):  
Юрий Алексеевич Азаров
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Military Service ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Ideological Attitudes

В статье, приуроченной к празднованию 75-летия окончания Великой Отечественной войны, рассматривается народное отношение к войне за свободу своего отечества, которое, наряду с людскими ресурсами, качеством вооружения, стратегическим и тактическим руководством, стало одним из истоков Победы. Такое отношение к войне унаследовано из прошлого и связано с представлением о героическом - важнейшей категории традиционной культуры, составляющей доминирующее смысловое и эмоциональное начало высоких жанров. В эпопее, традиционном народном эпосе описываются и превозносятся поступки, свидетельствующие о бесстрашии героев, способности преодолеть инстинкт самосохранения, пожертвовать собой ради общего блага, мужественно встретить смерть. Сформировавшаяся за более чем три десятилетия традиция ветеранского рассказа порождает свои оригинальные тексты, распространяющиеся как в устной (аудиовизуальной записи), так и в письменной форме, причем оба канала передачи в данном случае тесно переплетаются и становятся равноправными коммуникативными типами. Одна из их главных особенностей состоит в том, что эпическая героизация прошлого в ряде случаев сочетается со стремлением открыть новую правду о войне, преодолением шаблонного восприятия ее событий, которое было обусловлено цензурными ограничениями и идеологическими императивами советской эпохи. Многие из обозначенных признаков характерны и для сохранившегося в семейном архиве рассказа Героя Советского Союза А. Н. Азарова, который охватывает значительный отрезок исторического времени: начиная с его призыва на действительную военную службу в1940 г. и заканчивая операцией по взятию Берлина в составе 6-го танкового корпуса. This article, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, examines the people’s attitude toward the war, which, along with human resources, the quality of weaponry, strategic and tactical leadership, became one of the sources of the victory. Their attitude to wars of liberation was inherited from the past and is associated with the idea of the heroic - a most important category of traditional culture, which is the dominant semantic and emotional core of high genres. The traditional folk epic, for example, describes and extols actions that demonstrate the fearlessness of heroes, their ability to overcome the instinct of self-preservation and sacrifice themselves for the common good. The tradition of stories by veterans that have been collected over more than the last three decades generates its own original texts in both oral (audio-visual recording) and written form; both channels of transmission are closely intertwined and equally important. One of their main features is that the epic heroization of the past in some cases combines with the desire to reveal new truth about the war, to overcome its stereotypical perception due to Soviet censorship and ideological attitudes. These features are also characteristic of the story told by Hero of the Soviet Union A. N. Azarov that has been preserved in his family’s archive. It covers a significant period of history, from his conscription for active military service in 1940 to his participation in the operation to capture Berlin as part of the 6th tank corps.

Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prevailing View ◽  
The Way

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism. Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past. Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery. Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’ Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanry

Macedonia Faculties’ Students - “Chrisi Avgi” (Right Party) Followers’ Critique on the Greek Educational Policy

2014 ◽  
Vol 2013 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalerante Evagelia
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
History Books

AbstractThe present paper is involved with the Pedagogical faculties’ students’ critique on the current educational system as it has been altered after 1981. The research was carried out utilizing both quantitative and qualitative tools. Students-voters participated in the interviews whereas active voters were difficult to be located to meet the research requirements. The dynamics of the specific political party is based on a popular profile in terms of standpoints related to economic, social and political issues. The research findings depict the students’ strong wish for a change of the curricula and a turn towards History and Religion as well as an elevation of the Greek historic events, as the History books that have been written and taught at schools over the past years contributed to the downgrading of the Greek national and cultural identity. There is also a students’ strong belief that globalization and the immigrants’ presence in Greece have functioned in a negative way against the Greek ideal. Therefore, an overall change of the educational content could open the path towards the reconstruction of the moral values and the Greek national identity.

PARTICIPATION OF UZBEK SOLDIERS IN THE LIBERATION OF THE BALTIC STATES

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Ilkhomjon M. Saidov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Soviet Socialist Republic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Soviet Historiography

The article is devoted to the participation of natives of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in the Baltic operation of 1944. The author states that Soviet historiography did not sufficiently address the problem of participation of individual peoples of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, and therefore their feat remained undervalued for a long time. More specifically, according to the author, 40–42% of the working age population of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Such figure was typical only for a limited number of countries participating in the anti-fascist coalition. Analyzing the participation of Soviet Uzbekistan citizens in the battles for the Baltic States, the author shows that the 51st and 71st guards rifle divisions, which included many natives of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, were particularly distinguished. Their heroic deeds were noted by the soviet leadership – a number of Uzbek guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, Uzbekistanis fought as part of partisan detachments – both in the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, the Western regions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Moldova. Many Uzbek partisans were awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” of I and II degrees.

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