(Re)Constructing Suffering: “Fascist Captivity” in Soviet Commemorative Culture

Abstract

This article describes the specific features of the Soviet variant of construction of the “discourse of suffering” as the main content-generating component of the memory of forced labor during the period of the Second World War. Here we mainly examine the variety of literary and journalistic recreations of the suffering of forced laborers, been proposed during the Soviet time. The source base thus encompasses newspaper articles, agitation and propaganda materials (including brochures and leaflets issued during the war and in the first postwar years), published letters, memoirs, and samples of folkloric works created by forced laborers, works of poetry and prose written by Soviet writers, fictional and documentary films, etc.