Молодежь Кыргызстана и ее историческая память о Великой Победе

Abstract

Presented are results of a sociological study (qualitative comparative analysis of in-depth interviews) in the historical memory of Kyrgyzstan young citizens as one of participating states of Eurasian integration, namely, their ideas about World War II and formation of historical memory, as well as understanding and interpretation of integration processes between countries of NIS. For the Soviet Union citizens, the victory in World War II was not just a socio-historical milestone. Social time is a key element in formation of historical memory. It is interesting how the social time of historical events can be interpreted quite subjectively in a given community. Since the Victory was the most important event in the history of the Soviet Union, it can be assumed that historical memory of the war serves as a social link of integration processes. Therefore, the study of descendants historical memory of the victors in the Great Patriotic War becomes an interesting and scientifically urgent task. The specificity of this study was the methodology based on the use of a qualitative comparative analysis of results of in-depth interviews of Kyrgyzstan young citizens. More than 400 persons were interviewed using a non-random sample, and no less than 50 informants from each group, selected by the snowball method. The empirical object of research is the youth of the Kyrgyzstan Republic, belonged to the generation of “millennials” and “postmillennials” (18–38 years old). The historical memory of the Great Victory is largely connected with today’s ideas about the Eurasian integration of the NIS. Although it would seem that the content of the social memory of young people does not have a direct impact on the process of Eurasian integration, but as a potential force, it can spontaneously manifest itself in public life, or under certain conditions and the presence of an organized force, it can be included in the socio-political discourse.