Visualizing the Red Army’s Demobilization: Photography, Reconstructing Community and Creating Post-War Memory

Abstract

This article explores the photographs taken of the Red Army’s homecoming in the summer 1945. It examines what these reveal about post-war reconstruction and the re-establishment of communities. It argues that official demobilization photography was a carefully constructed and highly politicized attempt to visualize veterans’ reintegration, which subsequently structured war memory. The research is based on two forms of primary evidence, first the photographs and the visual evidence they contain, and second textual sources, including press accounts and archival documents, which reveal how these photographs were taken. The article examines the visual vocabularies and messages in photographs of soldiers departing from Berlin, and soldiers’ arrival in major cities, particularly Moscow and Leningrad. These images, for all their emotional power, were not representative of mass demobilization, but have been widely reproduced. Demobilization photography communicated important messages about post-war reconstruction, the reimposition of post-war gender norms, helping re-order and create post-war society.