Authors

Félix Krawatzek¹; Sophia Winkler¹;  ¹ Centre for East European and International Studies, Germany

Discussion

The paper investigates and contrasts how first and second-generation young Russians in Germany navigate their (assumed) fluid identities. Individuals with a migratory background commonly have to navigate between worlds, as a result of which they may need to find ways to align competing values, beliefs and even differing understandings of truth. To foreground how young migrants, as well as the children of migrants, navigate questions of belonging, we conducted semi-structured interviews focusing on how they position themselves within conflicting offers of belonging and how they respond to contradictions to their worldviews and underlying social and political values. We conducted interviews among 20 young Russians who arrived in Germany after February 2022 (generation 1) and 20 young Russians who underwent their socialisation in Germany (generation 2). We expose individuals to contradictory interpretations of history, and therefore offers of identity, to respond to three research questions: 1) How are conflicting interpretations of history received? 2) What social and political values do individuals draw on when they are confronted with conflicting historical narratives? 3) How do first- and second-generation migrants differ - or not - in their reactions? We complemented these interviews with short surveys in which the interviewees were exposed to contradicting social media content. This paper focuses on three key historical topoi, each characterised by varying degrees of mediation and lived experience: competing representations of World War II, a heavily mediatised part of history that is no longer within the realm of lived experience; the ordinary times of the Soviet Union and socialism in East Germany, situated between the immediacy of lived experience of older family members and the mediated narratives conveyed through eyewitness accounts; and historical arguments that justify Russia's annexation of Crimea, which is part of lived memory.