The Second World War as the second foundation of the Soviet Union

Literature Review from the year 2007 in the subject History - Basics, grade: 1,0 (A+ in Amerika), University of California, Berkeley (USA: University of California, Berkeley - Department of History), course: War and Memory in the 20th Century, 16 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The discussion on Soviet war memorials in Eastern Europe has shown how differently Europeans from the West, the East, and Russia still commemorate World War II. This essay gives an overview of the most important works on the Russian war memory, from the almost complete silence on the war in late Stalinism and the war cult of the Brezhniev era to the 'uncovering of blank spots' during the Perestroika. The essay points out that for many of the soldiers, the war was a 'sovietizing' experience; paradoxically, however, it also encouraged resistance to the Stalinist dictatorship. The essay does not only help to understand how the war could be understood as a 'second foundation' of the Soviet Union, but also sheds light on the general relation between power and memory in Soviet history.