The memory of war: the source study potential of periodicals published in large editions (by the example of Penza regional periodicals of the late 1980s – early 1990s) 

Olga A. Sukhova, Doctor of historical sciences, professor, dean of the faculty of history and languages, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), E-mail: savtemp@yandex.ru 

Background. The relevance of developing the issue is determined by the need to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and memorialization practices through local media. The purpose of the study is to analyze the source potential of factory periodicals – multi-circulation periodicals during the period of sociocultural transformation in the USSR in the 1980s – early 1990s. Materials and methods. The corpus of sources that reflected the process of institutionalization of memorial policy in Soviet society of the post-war era was formed from materials that are currently unclaimed in regional historiography – multi-circulation publications of large industrial enterprises in Penza. At the same time, fac-tory media of the late USSR, due to their specificity – the localization of memorial practic-es within the enterprise team – act as a clear projection of the changes that were taking place. The means of interpreting the results obtained are correlated with the methods of one of the most popular areas in historical science today – “memory studies”, which compre-hend the past through the study of memorial culture and memorial policy. Results. The pos-sibilities of using multi-circulation periodicals of two Penza enterprises as a source for studying methods of presenting information and content components of the image of the Great Patriotic War in the period of the 1980s – early 1990s are considered. A selection of multi-circulation issues dedicated to memorable dates was carried out: May 9 and June 22. The means of presenting information and changing the content of the image of the Great Patriotic War throughout the 1980s and early 1990s are described. Conclusions. In the mid-1960s – 1970s, a certain algorithm for honoring the anniversaries of the Victory of the So-viet people in the Great Patriotic War, as well as a frame of collective memories agreed up-on by party structures, developed in the periodical press. An obligatory element was the mobilization of society to solve national economic problems. At the same time, in the early 1980s the image of Victory is being recoded: the impersonal idea of the victory of socialism and progress over fascism and obscurantism gradually gave way to the image of everyday heroic resistance to the aggressor and the war in general in the rear and at the front. This was largely the result of a change in generations of keepers of the memory of the Great Pat-riotic War, as well as the publication of memoirs of front-line soldiers – enterprise workers in multi-circulation factory issues that complemented the image of Victory with personal experiences. 

Historical memory, identity formation, memory of the Great Patriotic War, Penza, multi-circulation periodicals, factory periodicals 

Sukhova O.A. The memory of war: the source study potential of periodicals published in large editions (by the example of Penza regional periodicals of the late 1980s – early 1990s). Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedeniy. Povolzhskiy region. Gumanitarnye nauki = University proceedings. Volga region. Humanities. 2024;(1):115–125. (In Russ.). doi: 10.21685/2072-3024-2024-1-11