Memories and Myths: The Personal and Political Impacts of the Siege of Leningrad

press release: Lisa Kirschenbaum, professor,  West Chester University

During the war, the Soviet state covered up the extent of the losses and propagated the story of Leningrad as a “hero city.” This lecture will explain how and why this heroic story outlasted the state that promoted it. Drawing on a variety of commemorative projects and memoirs, Professor Kirschenbaum will show the ways in which personal memories underpinned the “official” narrative of Leningrad as a “hero city” and how the official narrative in turn offered a resource for survivors attempting to cope with and make sense of painful memories.

Sponsored in conjunction with the War in Society and Culture Program, Department of Histor