Veterans remember the war in Soviet and post-Soviet fiction (original) (raw)
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World War II in Soviet Prose – An Overview
Philobiblon. Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in the Humanities, 2021
The main focus of our study is the representation of World War II in the Soviet literature from the war period to the '90s. Several literary works are analysed as representative for the historical, political and cultural background due to their main themes, narrative structure and character construction. The main concepts used in our analysis pertain to the Russian cultural context, on the one hand-heroism, heroic and heroic deed-and to Socialist Realism, on the other-positive hero. We distinguish four main perspectives in the war depiction: romantic-heroic, psychological, philosophical and authentic.
War II was crafted in a way that reflected the line of official history. The commanders in chief of the Red Armyfrom Zhukov to Rokossovskij, Vasiljevskij, Moskalenkocelebrated in their memories the valour, the self-sacrifice and brotherhood of soviet soldiers. And in a similar way great soviet writers as Simonov, Sholokov, Erenburg perceived the human experience of soviet fighters on the eastern front. Still today, in collective memory and in popular culture of contemporary Russia, veterans of the 'Great Patriotic war' are honored as heroes, even if in a less propagandistic way. The item of my lectures is the representation of a Russian frontline deserter in the masterpiece of V. Rasputin "Live and remember", memorable but atypical example of war literature. Challenging soviet stereotypes, in 1974 Rasputin described the damnation of an anti-heroes: Andrej Gus'kov, in the last year of war, makes the choice to return home by deserting. So he reaches in secret his wife Nastiena, in Atamanovka, a little Siberian village on the river Angarà, hiding out in abandoned huts.
2012
There is a new army marching onto the field of contemporary Russian literature: veterans of the recent Chechen Wars. The war veteran as author and/or protagonist has become increasingly popular, bringing to light social issues concerning the wars, including the presence of social disadaptation, a term I will define in this thesis, due to war trauma. This thesis analyzes the appearance of war trauma in contemporary works, connecting themes arising in the literary works to Russian psychological literature written about war trauma from 2000-2011. The first chapter focuses on the works of Arkady Babchenko, Andrei Gelasimov and Denis Butov and examines the similarities and differences in the manifestation of war trauma in their works. In particular, the thesis shows that the protagonists in each examined work all suffer or suffered from war trauma and disadaptation and are at different steps in the process of recovery from trauma. The second chapter will analyze the discourse in Russian psychological literature over the past twelve years, drawing mainly from studies and discussions presented in Military Medical Journal (Voenno-meditsinskii zhurnal) and Journal of Psychology (Psikhologicheskii zhurnal). This psychological literature provides insight into the work being done in the field of war trauma today, highlighting similarities and divergences in the specific case of Russian veterans of the Chechen wars. v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………...…………………………………... iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………… vi entirety of this project, from the very first days of brainstorming to the final product. To my readers, Beth Holmgren and Anna Krylova, for all of their time, help and input to strengthen the quality of this project. To the faculty of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University for providing me with the opportunity to further my language and cultural studies, explore this thesis topic and for the various forms of help and support over the past two years. And to my parents for their unwavering support and encouragement of my endeavors, however diverse or bizarre they may be.
Russian Studies in Literature, 2006
This article describes some military subjects and plots which wouldn't had been described in War literature, had writers followed restriction familiar to historians who had been conducting their research in Central Archive of Defense Ministry of Russian Federation (CAMO) in 1990s - 1st half of 2000s. English translation © 2006 ME Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text © 2005 Voprosy literatury. Voennaia literatura bez prava na dokumentalizm, Voprosy literatury, 2005, no. 3, pp. 10724. Translated by Liv Bliss. Page 2. 8 RUSSIAN STUDIES IN LITERATURE ...
2012
There is a new army marching onto the field of contemporary Russian literature: veterans of the recent Chechen Wars. The war veteran as author and/or protagonist has become increasingly popular, bringing to light social issues concerning the wars, including the presence of social disadaptation, a term I will define in this thesis, due to war trauma. This thesis analyzes the appearance of war trauma in contemporary works, connecting themes arising in the literary works to Russian psychological literature written about war trauma from 2000-2011. The first chapter focuses on the works of Arkady
Literature, 2021
In the Soviet era, Russian involvement in WWI long represented an ostracised and even forgotten event. This very attitude is reflected by Soviet literary criticism of WWI war literature. Taking into account both the studies which re-examined this part of Russian literature in a less ideologically biased manner and the stances that major writers of that period took towards the war, the aim of this paper is to investigate Russian Soldier-literature as presented in anthologies published in the wake of the First World War. The publishing of short stories, journalistic reporting and poems actually (or allegedly) composed by soldiers themselves can be interpreted as a symptomatic expression of a broader cultural discourse that was common at that time, and of which state propaganda publications often availed themselves.