Authors

Elena Kochetkova¹;  ¹ University of Bergen, UK

Discussion

The presentation will discuss the role of local libraries in the making of memory about the Great Patriotic War in modern Russia between the early 2000s and today. I am particularly interested in the North of Russia, focusing on the region of Pechenga (Petsamo) and its longer history as a border region. This area exhibits a particular relation to memories of the war. Before the war, this region was a Finnish territory, until it was annexed in 1944 by the Soviet Union, along with several other border areas. A high degree of militarization, border location, and industrial economy, mainly based on exhausting forms of natural resources extraction, shaped the specificities of the local community, rendering it particularly embedded in state-valued discourses of memory about the war. Being a state institution, the library also serves as a local agent which translates, shapes, and represents memory. These three peculiar functions make libraries an influential actor in the production of national memory.

I examine the activities of nine local libraries as both translators and producers of knowledge about the war, and interrogate how they contributed to shaping local memory about politically relevant history. Particular focus will be given to the evolution of remembering about the Great Patriotic War and Soviet-Finnish Wars, and their contribution in the narratives about the war narrative. It will discuss how remembering is embedded in the all-Russian discourse about the Second World War and examine the place of the Finnish wars. My research focuses on various events and commemoration practices, as well as representations and images, ranging from library master classes to book and poster exhibitions during and beyond the “critical spots” of memory (the celebration of the Victory Day and other key events).