Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / The Pain of War and the Power of Memory: Memory Politics and Ego-Documents on the Great Patriotic War

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Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2025 18 (11)
Authors
Kozlov, Sergey V.
Contact information
Kozlov, Sergey V. : The State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Novosibirsk, Russian Federation;
Keywords
memory studies; ego-documents; historical memory; memory politics; Great Patriotic War; memory studies; national identity; postmemory
Abstract

This article examines how ego- documents influence contemporary memory politics in Russia. It applies concepts of collective, cultural, and postmemory to assess the role of personal narratives in the shaping of war commemoration. The study reveals that first-person documents simultaneously preserve traumatic experience and function as instruments of heroization that reinforce the official state narrative. The ambivalence of ego-documents is emphasized: once integrated into museum and media practices, they help to promote patriotic messages, yet they also expose suffering, command failures, and moral dilemmas of frontline soldiers, thereby complicating collective memory. The findings clarify the transition from communicative to cultural memory following the passing of the war generation and demonstrate the role of digital archives as a driver of the ongoing “memory revolution.” The novelty of the research lies in connecting scattered corpora of ego-documents with the analytical framework of memory studies, showing how the personal “pain of war” is transformed into the “power of memory” that shapes contemporary commemorative practices. The practical significance of the study lies in its potential application to the development of museum exhibitions and digital humanities projects aimed at preserving the cultural heritage of the war

Pages
2286–2296
EDN
TJOARB
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/157904

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