The Perpetuation of the Events and Participants of the Great Patriotic War in the Memorial culture of the Rostov Oblast: Stages and Trends

The memorial experience of the Rostov Oblast is of particular interest, since in 1941–1942 and in 1943–1945 it was a rear region, and in 1941–1943, it was a zone of military operations and German occupation. The purpose of the article is to identify the stag-es and trends in perpetuating the events and participants of the war in the memorial culture of the Rostov Oblast. The authors used the principle of historicism, a systematic approach, historical-comparative, problem-chronological and source studies methods. The authors mark out the following main stages of the memorialization of the events and participants of the Great Patriotic War in the Rostov Oblast: 1) the war years – registration and tidying up of the graves of Soviet servicemen killed in battle, 2) the post-war decade – systematization and consolidation of burials, installation of standard monuments, 3) the end of the 1950s – the end of the 1980s – creation of a signifi cant number of different memorials and their wide use in commemorative practices; 4) the Contemporary stage – creation of new memorials, increase of the number of memorial actors, and strengthening of state regulation in the memorial sphere.