WWII and XXth Century Wars in the Collective Memory of different generations of Russians: visual methods research

Alexander Rikel,Inna Bovina,Natalia Fedorova,D Rudoy,A Olshevskaya,V Kankhva

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202021016012

Abstract

The collective memory about wars is an object of study, as well as the formation and upbringing within the educational process. The category of generation, collective memory, and psychological trauma are considered as central in the framework of the study described here. It is assumed that wars are significant for the formation of psycho-traumatic experience of a generation. Using visual methods, in which people were asked using self-report to evaluate their feelings and emotions when looking at photographs of various wars of the twentieth century, the hypothesis was tested that the role of the Second World War is the most traumatic compared to other wars due to its role, proximity in time and media effect. The conclusions are drawn about the absence of fundamental differences in the memory of World War II by all generations of Russians (N = 548 people) in all emotional and traumatic parameters, except for the parameter of feeling of pride in the results of the war.

Highlights

The collective memory of wars is an object of formation within the framework of political, media and educational socialization
The main hypothesis was the assumption that these emotional reactions will be much brighter in terms of the attitude of the Second World War in comparison with other wars of the XX century, which is explained by the significant involvement due to the involved relatives and friends, as well as efforts in the State policy to preserve the collective memory of the War
Earlier [13] it was revealed that events for a person that are significant for the formation of collective memory are exactly those that were actual during his youth and further perception of events in a political and social context occurs through the prism of events that happened during his youth

Summary

Introduction

The collective memory of wars is an object of formation within the framework of political, media and educational socialization. Mannheim, who defined the generation with the help of jointly experienced in a sensitive period of experience, which later transformed into collectively similar reactions based on formed values [1]. This interpretation essentially includes a historical, sociological, culturological and, as a result, a socio-psychological approach to understanding the generation, and it is this approach that is used by most authors to illustrate the value differences and behavioral features of different age groups [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Despite the differences attributed to generational groups, the terminological framework of the generation itself remains blurred, conceptual boundaries in various classifications are conditional, and the methods of studying the system-forming factors of this large social group are not always objective [6, 7, 8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion