Revisiting Great Soviet Symbols of World War II. The Young Guard Now and Then

Authors

  • Olga GRĂDINARU Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, olgagradinaru@gmail.com

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdrama.2019.2.05

Keywords:

The Young Guard, heroicized death, ideological fictionalization, demystification, cult of Great Patriotic War, Soviet material culture

Abstract

The anti-fascist organization The Young Guard (Molodaya gvardia) in a Ukrainian town is the main focus of the present analysis, offering a glimpse into the Soviet myth-making and hero-making cycle. The article unveils the ideological and cultural patterns during the Soviet period, with a focus on A. Fadeyev’s novel and on the Soviet and post-Soviet film adaptations. The case of The Young Guard organization generated a frenzy of artistic representations throughout the Soviet Union, with various degrees of demystification during the post-Soviet period. The paper highlights the differences in describing and perceiving the heroic/heroicized death in various historical periods. Soviet propaganda traits and Socialist Realism patterns are revealed as part of the Soviet cult of World War II, as well as demystifying steps in approaching the myth of The Young Guard in post-Soviet filmic productions.

Author Biography

Olga GRĂDINARU, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, olgagradinaru@gmail.com

OLGA GRĂDINARU, born in 1981, in the Republic of Moldova, graduated the Faculty of Letters, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, in 2004, two Master Programs - in Journalism, in 2006 and in Comparative Literature, in 2007, at the same university. Her PhD thesis is entitled The Representation of World War II in the Soviet Literature and Cinematography, Comparative Literature Department, at the same university. She is the author of the book Războiul sovietic între idealizare și demitizare, and author of studies published in Caietele Echinox, Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, Transilvania, Brukenthalia. Romanian Cultural Review. She is Associate Lecturer at Babeş-Bolyai University.

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STUDIA UBB DRAMATICA, Volume 64 (LXIV), No. 2, October 2019

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Published

2019-12-15

How to Cite

GRĂDINARU, O. (2019). Revisiting Great Soviet Symbols of World War II. The Young Guard Now and Then. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Dramatica, 64(2), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdrama.2019.2.05

Issue

Volume 64, No. 2, October 2019

Section

Articles

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