Protectors of the Great Victory: Commemoration of World War II in the Russian Community of Toronto

Abstract

Political mobilization of the Russian-speaking immigrant communityin Canada is a relatively recent phenomenon, but it has permeated multiplespheres of community life in recent years. This paper examines how Russian-speaking immigrants living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) used thehistory and memory of World War II to mobilize their community from2014–21, what forms of war commemoration they performed, and what thesecommemoration practices meant for the community and the individuals whoparticipated in them. The commemorative practices and performances in theGTA’s Russian-speaking community remained controversial as they borrowedextensively from Soviet and post-Soviet political imagery and rituals, yet, as Iargue in this article, political activism of Russian-speaking immigrants was alsoinformed by Canadian multiculturalism policies and international politicaldiscourses and was intimately linked to their demands for full citizenship andcultivation of their identities in Canadian society.