Soldiers of Memory

Soldiers of Memory explores the complexities and ambiguities of World War II experience from the Estonian veterans’ point of view. Since the end of World War II, contesting veteran cultures have developed on the basis of different war experiences and search for recognition in the public arena of history. The book reflects on this process by combining witness accounts with their critical analysis from the aspect of post-Soviet remembrance culture and politics. The first part of the book examines the persistent remembrance of World War II. Eight life stories of Estonian men are presented, revealing different war trajectories: mobilised between 1941 and 1944, the narrators served in the Red Army and its work battalions, fought against the Soviet Union in the Finnish Army, Waffen-SS, Luftwaffe, the German political police force and Wehrmacht, deserted from the Red Army, were held in German and Soviet prison and repatriation camps. The second part of the book offers a critical analysis of the stories from a multidisciplinary point of view: what were the possible life trajectories for an Estonian soldier under Soviet and German occupations in the 1940s? How did the soldiers cope with the extreme conditions of the Soviet rear? How are the veterans’ memories situated in terms of different memory regimes and what is their position in the post-Soviet Estonian society? What role does ethnic and generational identity play in the formation of veterans’ war remembrance? How do individuals cope with war trauma and guilt in life stories? Offering a wide range of empirical material and its critical analysis, Soldiers of Memory will be important for military, oral and cultural historians, sociologists, cultural psychologists, and anybody with an interest in the history of World War II, post/communism, and cultural construction of memory in contemporary Eastern European societies

Computer Science · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Psychology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · 1939-1945 · 1940-1991 · biography · Communism · Estonia · Estonian Personal narratives · Europe · German occupation, 1941-1944 · History · Memory · Personal narratives · Psychological aspects · Soldiers · Soviet occupation, 1940-1941 · World War · World war, personal narratives, european

• Reproducing Identity through Remembering

  Open Access•Kirsti Jõesalu, Raili Nugin•Folklore Electronic Journal of…•2012

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• The Role of the Soviet Past in Post-Soviet Memory Politics through Examples of Speeches from Estonian Presidents

  Kirsti Jõesalu•Europe Asia Studies•2012

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• Noticeboard

  Nathan Roger•Journal of War and Culture Studies•2011

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• The Epistolary Dynamics of Sisterhood Across the Iron Curtain

  Leena Kurvet-Käosaar•Life Writing•2015

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• Decolonization of Trauma and Memory Politics

  Open Access•Dovilė Budrytė•Humanities•2016

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• We were the children of a romantic era

  Kirsti Jõesalu•Journal of Baltic Studies•2016

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