The 21st-century memory of the Great Patriotic War in the “Russia – My History” Museum

Abstract

“Russia – My History” Museums represent a significant attempt to create an atmosphere of emotional and social belonging to the Russian nation, for citizens all across Russia, through combining educational and leisure activities. The memory of the “Great Patriotic War” plays a pivotal role in this nation-defining effort, as the most crucial moment in 20th-century history, when all Russians united to defeat the Nazis. Because of the “Great Patriotic War’s” dominant place in the hierarchy of Russian national events, the creators of “Russia – My History” seek to protect canonical Second World War narratives against any competing narratives that diminish the glory and heroism of the war. The “Russia – My History” exhibits present the Putin-era restoration of “Great Patriotic War” memory as a significant historical event in its own right, suggesting that the Russians have found unity under Putin just as they did during the “Great Patriotic War.”