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The labour feat of residents of Volga cities during the Great Patriotic War in the modern practice of commemoration 

 

Bushuev A. S.

 

Abstract

Based on the example of creating new “places of memory” the article considers the modern practice to commemorate the labour feat of residents of Volga cities by means of the installation of memorial complexes with the stele “City of Labour Valour”. It is shown that this process is a reflection of the transition in historical politics of recent years from the predominance of military-front memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 — 1945 to increased attention to the memory of the rear and its contribution to the Victory over Nazi Germany and its satellites. As a result of the analysis of the images used on the steles installed in Samara, Ulyanovsk, Cheboksary, Penza and the stele projected in Kazan, the author identified their common features (rear and front-line themes, images of people and military products, the predominance of female and children’s images, etc.) and individual characteristics (images of the composer D. D. Shostakovich in Samara, of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Sergius (Starogorsky) in Ulyanovsk, translation of the image of the “reserve capital” in Samara by demonstrating the “Stalin’s bunker” and the “scientific center” in Kazan with the buildings of Kazan University and the branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a high proportion of images of soldiers in Penza and rural workers in Kazan, etc.). The author not only analyzed the historical and art images used by the creators of the monuments, but also showed their connection with the history of Volga cities during the Great Patriotic War, as well as determined the specifics of their possible impact on the mass consciousness of townsmen and the consolidation of urban communities.

 

Keywords: the Great Patriotic War, “City of Labour Valour”, labour feat, “places of memory”, commemoration, historical politics, the Volga region

 

Acknowledgments: the author expresses his gratitude to D. A. Stritovich who provided materials of art projects of steles of cities of labor valor for the analysis.

 

For citation: Bushuev AS. The labour feat of residents of Volga cities during the Great Patriotic War in the modern practice of commemoration. Center and Periphery. 2023;18(1):36—44. EDN AVBNVO

 

REFERENCES

 

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2. Zakharchenko AV. Aviation arsenal of the Volga region: placement, production, modernization during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 — 1945. Proceedings of the Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2016;18(3):103—114. (In Russ.)

3. Lotman YuM. Memory in cultural coverage. Selected articles. Tallinn;1992:1:200—202. (In Russ.)

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6. Khramkov LV. Military-industrial complex of the Volga region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 — 1945. Bulletin of Samara State University. 2007;(5/3):215—221. (In Russ.)

 

Information about the author:

Aleksei S. Bushuev, Academic Secretary of the Marjani Institute of History of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences (7A Baturina str., Kazan 240111, Russia), Candidate of Historical Sciences, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3186-1981, Researcher ID: C-3603-2012, a_bushujev@mail.ru

 

Conflict of interests: the author declares no conflict of interests.

 

The author has read and approver the final version of the manuscript.

 

The article was submitted 09.09.2022; approved after reviewing 14.11.2022; accepted for publication 21.11.2022.