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The Tragedy of Soviet Prisoners of War in the Memorial Culture of the South of Russia
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a large number of Soviet soldiers were captured because of mistakes by Soviet commanders. A large number of transit camps were located in the south of the USSR, mostly in the Crimea. After the liberation of the territory, emergency commissions discovered the remains of many dead soldiers at the sites of these camps.
Methods: The authors used source analysis of archival and published documents, visual observation and expert interviews.
Results: During the war and the fi rst post-war years, small obelisks began to appear on the site of former camps and mass graves. Since the late 1950s, standard sculptural compositions and other monuments have replaced them. Large memorials at the sites of mass graves were created in the 1970s and 1980s, but some of the monuments were damaged or lost. Currently, the largest number of monuments to the prisoners of war are situated in the Crimea and in the Rostov region.
But many places of mass death of prisoners of war are not marked with memorial signs. The memorial texts on other monuments do not always indicate that they are erected on the mass graves of prisoners of war. All this allows us to speak about the
need for stricter implementation of the provisions enshrined in the legislation on perpetuating the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.
Methods: The authors used source analysis of archival and published documents, visual observation and expert interviews.
Results: During the war and the fi rst post-war years, small obelisks began to appear on the site of former camps and mass graves. Since the late 1950s, standard sculptural compositions and other monuments have replaced them. Large memorials at the sites of mass graves were created in the 1970s and 1980s, but some of the monuments were damaged or lost. Currently, the largest number of monuments to the prisoners of war are situated in the Crimea and in the Rostov region.
But many places of mass death of prisoners of war are not marked with memorial signs. The memorial texts on other monuments do not always indicate that they are erected on the mass graves of prisoners of war. All this allows us to speak about the
need for stricter implementation of the provisions enshrined in the legislation on perpetuating the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.
Historical memory, Soviet prisoners of war, memorial culture, South of Russia, project “No statute of limitations”, monument