Zmiyovskaya balka (Rostov-on-Don): Memory of the Holocaust and competition of victims

Abstract

The paper focuses on the memory conflicts surrounding Zmiyovskaya balka in Rostov-on-Don, which became the site of the most mass extermination of Jews on the territory of the RSFSR during the Nazi occupation. The local authorities resist attempts to designate Zmiyovskaya balka as a Holocaust memorial site. The reasons for this resistance lie in Soviet memory politics and contemporary historical policy. The Soviet narrative of the war, where Jews were not singled out as a separate category of victims or were portrayed as victims of lesser significance than Slavs, still influences the historical perceptions of citizens. Many are still unaware that the Nazis had a special policy towards Jews and are convinced that the invaders were exterminating all Soviet citizens on equal grounds. This influence of the Soviet narrative is fueled by modern memory politics. Although Russia, unlike the USSR, has long recognized the Holocaust, the idea of the exclusivity of the Soviet, Russian, or Slavic sacrifice in the WWII is as important to modern Russia as it was to the USSR. The status of the people that suffered the greatest losses in WWII is the symbolic capital that many Russians are used to consider their own. Therefore, the classical concept of the Holocaust, as an event unique not only in the history of WWII, but also in world history, hardly fits into the modern Russian narrative of the war. Attempts to designate the memorial on Zmiyovskaya balka as a Holocaust memorial are perceived by many officials and ordinary citizens as an attack on the status of the main victim of the war.