“They Fought for Their Motherland”: Literature and History

<jats:p>The present book is devoted to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, and presents a panorama of one of the most fateful and heroic stages in the life of our country, captured in historical documents and reflected in the artistic word. The authors of the articles, philologists and historians, leading scholars and young researchers, aim to find new approaches to the topic of “the Great Patriotic War and literature”, and restore the historical and literary context of works created during the war and about the war. They introduce archival materials and sources which are not widely known into academic circulation. The problems of studying the history of the Battle of Stalingrad, which became a turning point in the Great Patriotic War, and its reflection in documents and literary texts are considered. Special attention is paid to literature and journalism of the war years. The feat of resisting fascism is shown through the perception of writers and philosophers of Soviet Russia, and the Russian diaspora and European cultural figures. One of the sections is devoted to the biography and work of M.A. Sholokhov during the war period. It shows how the moral and spiritual experience of the Great Patriotic War is represented in Russian and other national literatures of the second half of the 20th century. The problems and poetics of lieutenant prose, the peculiarities of the development of the theme “A man at war” at the present stage are considered. The book is addressed to literary critics, historians, educators, as well as a wide range of readers.</jats:p>