In this essay for The Atlantic, Elliot Ackerman examines the legacy of Stalingrad and argues that Russia is not the only heir to the Soviet heroics of the Second World War.
Drawing on Vasily Grossman’s The People Immortal, Ackerman explores how Ukrainian, Russian, and Soviet identities overlap in the history of World War II and in the modern war in Ukraine.
Stalingrad, Ukraine, and Soviet Memory
Ackerman considers how Vladimir Putin has used the memory of Stalingrad to justify Russian nationalism while neglecting Ukraine’s central role in the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany.
Vasily Grossman and the War Narrative
The essay reads Grossman’s account of the Red Army’s retreat through Ukraine as both a record of Soviet resistance and an unsettling mirror of Russia’s current invasion.
The Battle Over History
At its center, the piece argues that the Russia-Ukraine war is also a struggle over memory, language, identity, and who gets to inherit the moral authority of victory over fascism.