“Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin’s Russia”

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Thirty years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia is wielding the banner of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II to rally domestic support for its aggression against Ukraine. The Russian state propaganda framed the invasion as a liberation mission by invoking the Soviet-era myth of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945), according to which the Soviet people, led by Russia, saved the world from the greatest evil of the twentieth century. At the same time, the government has banned civil society institutions and initiatives that reminded the country of the legacy of Soviet political violence. Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror explores the appeal of the cult of the Great Patriotic War to contemporary Russians and the waning of public interest in Soviet political terror as intertwined trends. These trends are driven not only by the weaponization of the official WWII memory, but also by familial pieties and deep-seated memory habits. The author demonstrates how these widely shared habits of remembrance have taken root and flourished through recurring exposure to war films, urban environments, popular commemorative rituals, and digital archives. Combining memory studies, rhetorical theory, and personal biography, Haskins illuminates why, despite the staggering toll of WWII and internal political violence on Soviet families, most Russian citizens continue to proudly embrace their family’s participation in the war effort and avoid discussion of domestic political persecution.

Ekaterina V. Haskins is professor of communication arts and sciences and visual studies at Penn State. She investigates official and grassroots memory practices as significant sites of civic engagement. Haskins is the author of three monographs, including Popular Memories: Commemoration, Participatory Culture, and Democratic Citizenship (University of South Carolina Press 2015) and Remembering the War, Forgetting the Terror: Appeals to Family Memory in Putin’s Russia (Penn State Press 2024) as well as numerous articles on rhetoric, memory, and visual culture.