Creation of the Memorial Complex for the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamaev Kurgan: Historical Memory, Art and Soviet Monumental Propaganda

Abstract

Introduction. The article, based on a wide range of sources, described the creation of a memorial complex on Mamaev Kurgan in the hero city of Stalingrad/Volgograd and related public and non-public discussions. Methods and materials. An attempt was made to comprehend this process through the prism of the general dynamics of the formation of historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and the development of Soviet monumental art in the 1940s and 1960s. Using the method of actor-network analysis, the author of the article tries to reconstruct the goals, motives and actions of the main circle of interested parties (actors) who participated in the creation of the memorial complex “Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad”: the highest state-party leadership of the USSR, municipal authorities, residents of the hero city, representatives of the creative community (architects, sculptors, writers, artists), as well as veterans – participants in the battle on the Volga. Analysis and Results. Based on the study materials, it is concluded that all these “historical memory designers” contributed to the creation of a unique monument-ensemble on Mamaev Kurgan, opened in 1967, guided not only by commemorative, but also by political-ideological, financial, career, status, moral-ethics and aesthetic motives. The need to erect a large memorial in the context of the Khrushchev campaign to combat excesses in architecture and criticism from individual members of the public demanded that the authors of the project, led by sculptor E.V. Vuchetich, transform it and adapt it to new realities, and also updated the process of forming the concept of the “Lenin’s plan of monumental propaganda”.