Historians of science and technology – children of the Great Patriotic War: oral history and the preservation of historical memory

This is a collection of oral reminiscences by the members of the S.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology, born from 1929 to 1944, who have witnessed the war and the early post-war years. The reminiscences were recorded on May 17, 2022, during the Victory Day celebration at the Institute. The older generation of the historians of science and technology were asked to recount the episodes they remembered from the War. An analysis of their stories has shown that many respondents associated the War with mass evacuation of people, losing their relatives, starving, bombings, help offered by strangers, children’s labor, and selfless, heroic acts at the front and in the rear. For the children of the war, this period in national history has become ingrained in their minds as a symbol of Soviet people’s indomitability and a factor of national unity, on the one hand, and as pain, tragedy and disaster that had destroyed the lives of millions, on the other hand. These personal reminiscences about the Great Patriotic War are rooted in family ‘microhistory’, as they include their relatives’ stories and oral traditions. However, for these people, childhood memories of everyday life during the War formed a distinctive collective sense of patriotism, which still comprises an important part of national identity.