SUMMARY:

World War II or, as it was called in the Soviet Union, the “Great Patriotic War” still plays a very significant role in Russia. Specific rituals and traditions of, what we may call, “commemoration cult” were established by Leonid Brezhnev, developed by his successors and were cherished in Russia up to the present day. This article examines two examples of that “commemoration cult”: the memoirs of war written by Irina Ehrenburg (born 1911), and the one written by Marina Pavlovna Chechneva (born 1922). Irina Ehrenburg served during the war as interpreter and war correspondent. Chechneva fought as one of the so-called “night witches”, as they called the pilots of the (all-women) night bomber regiment. The article focuses on how specific patterns of the overall “commemoration cult” have influenced Ehrenburg’s and Chechneva’s memoirs. Ehrenburg reflects first the early death of her husband and then draws the attention of the reader to the negative sides of the war. While Ehrenburg paints a rather realistic picture, Chechneva follows the patterns of the Brezhnevian glorification of the war without forgetting to mention specific problems women encountered while serving in combat troops. Depending on the individual biography and experiences, the two women reflect the course of the war differently. Interesting enough, while some parts of their memoirs deviate decisively from the “official” commemoration cult, other parts reflect the typical patterns of the commemoration cult to be found in specific social groups.