This study analyzes how public bereavement became cemented into the broad geography of Russian culture with the appearance of experiential and local memorials in the 1960s after a half century of instability, contestation, and absence. The author shows how monument builders responded to a need from the population to share an accessible war experience apart from the exclusive Bolshevik memorial culture. He argues that this development of war commemoration has amplified the role of war hero memorialization as an anchor of public stability and social solidarity in Putin's Russia, where there is little consensus about the past, present, or future.
Aaron J. Cohen is professor of history at California State University at Sacramento.
Chapter 1 Honors and Insults: War Monuments in Late Imperial Russia, 1905-1914 Chapter 2 Victims and Heroes: The Rise and Fall of Patriotic Memorials, 1914-1922 Chapter 3 The Absence of Presence: War Monuments and Bolshevik Memorial Culture, 1922-1955 Chapter 4 Hope along the Marne: War Memorials in Russia Abroad, 1922-1941 Chapter 5 Soviet War Memorials: People, State, and the Great Patriotic War, 1955-1985 Chapter 6 The Return of the Public: Civic Reconciliation, Politics, and War Monuments, 1986-2015
In War Monuments, Public Patriotism, and Bereavement in Russia, 1905-2015, Aaron J. Cohen describes a foundational feature of Russian national identity. Now, for the first time, readers can follow the engrossing story of the construction of Russian statuary of war, from the early twentieth century to current monument building under Putin. Cohen's discussion of the memorialization of World War II is particularly compelling, and the book will be essential reading for students of Russia's Great Patriotic War. -- Jeffrey Brooks, Johns Hopkins University, author of The Firebird and the Fox: Russian Culture under Tsars and Bolsheviks This is the finest book on Russian public culture ever written. Aaron J. Cohen offers keen insights into Russian art, commemoration, and society from the late tsarist era to the present. The array of sources he has uncovered and brought to bear here is simply dazzling. His treatment of Russia proper would be significant enough, but by including the memorials erected in Russian emigre communities around the world, he gives us an even fuller and deeper understanding of what it has meant to be Russian in modern times. -- Steve Marks, Clemson University Aaron J. Cohen's work on war monuments and bereavement is deeply researched and encyclopedic in scope. Focusing on physical monuments and memorials, Cohen explores the many turning points in Russian memorial culture from the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War to the present. Exploring major sites such as Mars Field, Piskarevskoe Cemetery, and the Victory Monument as well as lesser-known memorial sites, this richly-illustrated panoramic view of monuments is essential reading for historians of memory. -- Karen Petrone, University of Kentucky
