About the author:
Vasily S. Khristoforov
Vasily S. Khristoforov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of Research, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, 117292 Moscow, Russia; Senior Researcher, Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Minina St., 31A, 603155 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Abstract:
The article examines various types of documentary materials from the Russian state and departmental archives that reveal vivid heroic and tragic pages of the work of Soviet war correspondents (E.A. Dolmatovsky, D.A. Fibikh and S.S. Smirnov) in preserving the memory of the war. Particular attention is paid to documents collected in 1956–1976 by the writer S.S. Smirnov (1915–1976), whose professional activity was closely connected with the return of unknown names of war heroes, the formation of places of memory and the restoration of justice for former Soviet prisoners of war. The article provides a classification of archival documents, their general characteristics and clarifies their source study potential for studying the problems of memorialization and the role of war correspondents as actors of memorial practices. It is noted that an important role in preserving historical memory is played by documents of personal origin stored in the writer’s personal collection in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art: letters from readers, television viewers, radio listeners — participants of the Great Patriotic War, the Resistance Movement, former prisoners of German concentration camps, prisoners of war, as well as aspiring writers.
Keywords: A.E. Dolmatovsky, D.A. Fibikh, S.S. Smirnov, war correspondents, historical memory, archival documents.
