“Greet Us, Beautiful Soumi!”: Memory of the 1939–1940 Soviet-Finnish War and Construction of the “True” History of War

Abstract. The article analyzes the reasons for the disappearance of the 1939–1940 Soviet-Finnish War from the official discourse of state historical policy. This war turns out to be ignored and completely drops out of formal commemorative practices. The grassroots collective commemorative practices in the territories of the Leningrad Region and the Republic of Karelia also are being discussed. The attention of the academic community to this war, both in the Soviet period and in post-Soviet Russia, and are examined. A number of current cases from various social spheres show that the memory of the war today is largely constructed and re-introduced based on personal and group interests. This reconstruction sometimes takes rather grotesque shapes. The conflict is being rethought through an appeal to the traumatic experience of both sides in the general context of relations between Finland and the USSR in the 1920s-1940s, as they were seen in the late Soviet period and as seen today.

Keywords: Soviet-Finnish War, Winter War, history of the USSR, memory studies, museum, non-state museums, historical policy.