The Great Patriotic War

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PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — V. V. Zdanovich. NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN. A REVIEW OF THE COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS “NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. BELARUS: CRIMES OF THE NAZIS AND THEIR ACCOMPLICES AGAINST CIVILIANS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORY OF THE BSSR DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR”

The article analyzes the collections of documents “No Statute of Limitations. Belarus: Crimes of the Nazis and Their Accomplices against Civilians in the Occupied Territory of the BSSR during the Great Patriotic War”, published in 2020–2024. The material contained in the collections tells about the crimes committed by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War in the occupied territory of the regions of Belarus within their modern borders. It is noted that a large number of various documents have been introduced into scientific circulation. New documentary facts and archival sources introduced into scientific circulation allow us to take a fresh look at the problem of everyday life during the Nazi occupation, to more deeply reveal the essence of the “new order” aimed not only at moral humiliation, but also at the extermination of the local population. The collected information about concentration camps, large-scale Nazi cartel operations, places of mass executions, destroyed villages is convincing evidence that the German political leadership created a real death machine, a criminal system of extermination. In general, the issues of text transmission and archaeographic design of documents have been successfully resolved. The scientific reference apparatus of the collections includes historical and archaeographic prefaces, textual notes, comments, a geographical index, a list of abbreviated words, a list of published documents. In the geographical index, the administrative-territorial subordination of settlements is given at the time of the events. The method of reproduction is indicated only for documents that are not typewritten. Legends of translated documents include storage locations of documents in German, their translations, authenticity, presence of previous publications. Specially prepared appendices also have great informational and practical value.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — I. N. Strekalov. THE EPIC FILM “LIBERATION”: A CONTINUATION OF THE EPIC POST-WAR TRADITIONSOR A NEW STAGE IN THE SOVIET WAR CINEMA?

The article deals with the significance and role of the epic film “Liberation” (directed by Yuri Ozerov, 1970–1971) in the development of the Soviet film epic genre. Learning the archival documents of the Committee for Cinematography under the USSR Council of Ministers, the USSR Union of Cinematography Workers, and the Mosfilm Studios, the researcher concludes that the Soviet filmmakers came to the conclusion it was impossible to return to the traditions of the late Stalinist epics (“The Third Strike”, “The Battle of Stalingrad”, and “The Fall of Berlin”) when creating a new epic film about the Great Patriotic War, and they found possible to retain the epic form created in these films only. The film “Liberation” became an independent stage in the development of the Soviet military-patriotic cinema.

PHJ № 1 (49) 2026 — A. M. Skvortsov. POSTGRADUATE HISTORICAL STUDIES IN 1941–1945: PROBLEMS OF ADAPTING THE SYSTEM OF ACADEMIC TRAINING TO WARTIME CONDITIONS

This article examines the specific features of postgraduate education in history during the Great Patriotic War. Drawing on statistical data, legal regulations, administrative records, and personal documents, the author analyzes how wartime mobilization and the general context of war influenced the training of highly qualified academic personnel. The article highlights challenges related to student recruitment, the quality of academic preparation, and the shifting focus of postgraduate activity toward propaganda work and the production of popular literature — trends that had a tangible impact on dissertation research. Concrete examples reveal a tendency to narrow the scope of dissertation topics to individual sources or specific historians which led to an increase in historiographical and source-critical studies during the war years. Starting in 1943, the All-Union Committee for Higher Education sought to tighten its oversight of postgraduate training. This was to be achieved through formal bureaucratic procedures — including the introduction of individual work plans, reporting activities, and scheduled evaluations — and by strengthening the responsibility of the academic advisor. In both administrative practice and normative documents, particular attention was given to the advisor’s role, with an emphasis on intensifying their engagement with the candidate.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. A. Livtsov. FOR THEM, THE WAR DID NOT END IN 1945. BOOK REVIEW: KOVALEV B. N. “THE THAW” AND HITLER’S HEIRS: FROM THE HISTORY OF THE SEARCH AND PUNISHMENT OF NAZI COLLABORATORS IN NORTHWESTERN RUSSIA IN THE LATE 50S — THE FIRST HALF OF THE 60S OF THE 20TH CENTURY. MOSCOW: ISTORICHESKAYA PAMYAT, 2025. 224 P.

“The Thaw” brought liberation not only to innocent victims. Real criminals, guilty of the death of many thousands of civilians, partisans and soldiers of the Red Army, were also released. Who is to blame for it? Many war criminals found refuge in the West — both in West Germany and in the countries allied with the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. How could it happen? Former collaborators of the Nazis, Vlasovites and punishers were often able to successfully hide their past. They were respected as honored veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Why did it happen? The Soviet state security agencies spent decades searching for them. What did they do to ensure that justice prevailed? Answers to these questions can be found in the new book by St. Petersburg historian Boris Kovalev.

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PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — K. A. Boldovskii. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF LENINGRAD DURING THE YEARS OF THE SIEGE — THE PRACTICE OF LABOR MOBILIZATIONS

The author conducts an analysis of the process of labour mobilisations of the Leningrad population during the Siege, with a view to restoring urban infrastructure and the economy. The population was engaged in activities contributing to the urban economy, thereby playing a pivotal role in ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of the Leningrad life support system during the Siege. The city’s leadership initiated the organisation of labour mobilisations at the onset of the war. The bureau of the City Party Committee, the Leningrad City Executive Committee and the Military Council of the Leningrad Front constituted the primary mobilisation management bodies. The resolution of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, adopted on June 27, 1941, defined the main categories of citizens who could be called up for labour mobilisation. The length of working hours and responsibility for evading labor mobilization were also determined. The administration of enterprises and institutions mobilised working residents of the city, while the management of educational institutions mobilised students. Household administrations at the place of residence mobilised non-working residents. During the initial phase of the war, extending until the spring of 1942, the majority of mobilised individuals were engaged in construction activities, including the erection of defensive structures, the execution of loading and unloading operations, the construction of bomb shelters, the remediation of the consequences of artillery shelling and bombing, the harvesting of firewood, and other associated tasks. In the initial period, there was a paucity of a clearly defined plan for mobilising the working population. By the onset of spring 1942, a functional management system for labour mobilisations had been formulated. This enabled the project to be expanded on a wide scale in 1942–1943.The most extensive measures involving the mobilisation of labour were implemented in the spring of 1942 (for the purpose of cleaning the city) and in the winter of 1942–1943 (for the purpose of clearing snow from the city and railway communications). Commencing in the autumn of 1943, the municipal administration established the primary objective of its operations as the organisation of work on the construction project. For its implementation, both mass labor mobilizations and mobilizations of certain categories of workers were widely used.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. L. Piankevich. LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

As part of the study of the sensory experience of war and blockade, the article attempts to analyze sensory impressions, the experience of residents of besieged Leningrad staying in conditions of darkness for a long time, the perception and reflection of light and darkness in written and visual sources. Among them are testimonies from the war and blockade time: diaries, letters, regulatory documents of state authorities and administration, works of artists, architects, photographers, as well as transcripts of oral testimonies collected shortly after the blockade and the war, interviews and memories of city residents of a later time.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — A. Yu. Stefanenko. HARVESTING VEGETABLES IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD

After the end of the first winter of the blockade in 1941–1942, the Leningrad leadership was faced with the problem of finding new sources of food. One of the most important areas became the organisation of the harvest of agricultural products, especially vegetables and potatoes. The city’s leaders launched mass campaigns to create individual gardens and send Leningraders to plant, weed and harvest crops and vegetables on the subsidiary farms of enterprises and state farms in the Leningrad region. At the same time, the authorities had to solve a number of organisational and social problems. Throughout the blockade, there was an acute shortage of equipment and supplies. The irrational use of available human resources led to the loss of vegetables through spoilage and theft. Nevertheless, the mobilisation campaigns helped to supply Leningrad with food and to prevent a repetition of the tragedy of the “time of death”.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — E. Yu. Zubkova. «VICTORY AND THE GREAT FAREWELL»: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE POLICY OF REMEMBERING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. 1945–1965

In the Russian context, multiple memories of the war coexist, with one type forming spontaneously as a “living” experience of what was lived through, and the other emerging as the result of a targeted state project, driven by a policy on constructing memory. To what extent did the state commemorative project take into account the public demand for remembrance of the war? Furthermore, what objectives did the state memory policy pursue in creating the image of the Great Patriotic War? In what ways did this image manifest itself in various memorial formats? The present article is devoted to these and other issues of the formation of memory of the war — from Victory Day 1945 to Victory Day 1965.

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PHJ №1 (45) 2025 — E. D. Tverdyukova. “BECOMING NOT ONLY TOBACCO WORKERS, BUT ALSO AMMUNITION MANUFACTURERS”: THE LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE LENINGRAD TOBACCO FACTORY NAMED AFTER URITSKIY V. N. RUMYANTSEV TO THE V. P. ZOTOV (7.7.1942)

The published document is a primary source on the history of the 1st Leningrad Tobacco Factory named after Uritsky. It was the largest enterprise in the USSR to operate during the siege of Leningrad, supplying the city’s population and its defenders with cigarettes and tobacco. In the challenging conditions of war and blockade, smoking frequently served as means of coping with psycho-emotional distress, alleviating hunger, and acquiring a certain ritualistic significance. The factory’s activities in the initial year of the Great Patriotic War are discussed by the factory director, V. N. Rumyantsev, in a letter to V. P. Zotov, A. I. Mikoyan’s commissioner on food issues. The factory’s staff, in their efforts to substitute scarce raw materials, not only produced tobacco products but also successfully mastered the production of ammunition and medicines. The author of the letter goes on to describe his efforts to maintain the factory’s operational capacity during the first blockade winter, and characterizes the domestic characteristics of the workers.

PHJ № 4 (44) 2024 – B. N. Kovalev. KILLERS ABOUT KILLERS: TESTIMONY OF FORMER PUNISHERS AGAINST THEIR ASSOCIATES (THE CASE OF G. M. GUREVICH-GURVICH)

The 667th Shelon Battalion, comprising individuals who had collaborated with the Nazi regime, left a trail of violence and destruction in the vicinity of Leningrad. The Soviet state security agencies continued their search for war criminals until 1991. It is regrettable that, following the conclusion of the Second World War, a considerable number of these individuals were able to regularise their immigration status in a number of Western countries, including the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and West Germany. However, some former punishers who returned to the USSR were subsequently held to account for their actions. From 1947 to 1950, the death penalty was abolished in the Soviet Union. In 1955, an amnesty was proclaimed. The sentences handed down to those who had collaborated were reduced by a factor of two or three. Following their release from incarceration between the 1960s and 1980s, these individuals provided testimony as witnesses to the crimes of their former associates. One of the most notable trials occurred in Novgorod in 1962.