Fabrication and Truth
The Blockade in Russian Historiography
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The historiography on the Leningrad Blockade began during the war. The leadership of Leningrad prescribed a heroic and patriotic narrative. After the “Leningrad Affair” in 1949, the topic was taboo. Only in the 1960s did historians once again address the blockade, but the subject remained on the periphery. Ideological specifications and censorship defined the framework of what was presentable well into the 1980s. The archival material available was limited; access to western publications impossible. Since Perestroika, new sources and questions have allowed fresh insights into everyday life in besieged Leningrad. Russia’s historiography on the blockade is now integrated into international study of history.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2011, pp. 23–48)