The Eastern Front in European Memory: On Victims and Heroes, 1945-2024

This is the first comprehensive study to examine the place of the Eastern Front or Soviet-German War in European memory from a truly comparative perspective across Europe; it encompasses the Soviet and post-Soviet space, Germany (both GDR and FRG, and the Berlin Republic after 1990), Western Europe and Finland.

Covering the whole post-war period to the present, with a particular emphasis on recent events, this book offers a cultural perspective on the different ways in which the politics of memory dictated by states interact with and are sometimes counteracted by grass-roots memory initiatives. The Eastern Front in European Memory focuses on a diversity of sources and agents of memory, from monuments and public ceremonies to literary narratives, films and other aspects of popular culture that contribute to shaping the historical culture of the societies concerned.