Karen Petrone’s The Great War in Russian Memory brings scholars to the attention of missing Soviet and historian recognition of World War I memory and remembrance. Petrone argues that Russian memory of the Great War was prominently expressed, despite the official reconstruction and censoring of official Soviet records, lack of commemoration, and what previous historians of the historiography suggest. The author has two primary goals; reintegrate the Russian perspective into the fabric of the history of European war memory, while further, track the disappearance, reappearance and reconstructing of Russian ideas of militarization, heroism, and patriotism that highlights the consciousness of public memory. By studying the discourse of Russian society, including public and media representations of the First World War from the margins, Petrone argues that European conceptualizations of …show more content…
Organized into two sections, Petrone’s part one focuses on her four themes, consisting of religion, heroic masculinity, violence and patriotism. These topics constitute her ranges of discourse for her analysis and provide the primary source of linking European and Russian dialogue together. Part two tracks the changes of these themes within Russian discourse asking why, when and how World War I discourse disappears from Soviet public consciousness. Part two focuses heavily on literature and memoirs. The author uses the same four themes again, chronologically analyzing discourse changes, showing a reflection in changing ideologies of the government 1920-1930s. Using a close analysis on censorship, publication dates, banning of books, and editing, the author narrows the changing of the discourse, ideologies changes, and the reconstruction of public