Präsenzveranstaltung

The history of late socialism is often discussed from the local perspective of individual countries. This tends to obscure the differences and peculiarities of the socialist system in different Eastern European countries. In our seminar, we will discuss everyday life in the GDR from several perspectives. First, we will look at the everyday life of socialism as recorded in the private memoirs of a specific group, Soviet soldiers and their families, who were partially isolated from full participation in the life of the country. Second, we will discuss the differences between the contexts of life in the USSR and the GDR using a comparative perspective. Third, we will also discuss the “nostalgic” characterization of these memories as problematic.

Evgeny V. Volkov GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 1970s–1980s THROUGH THE EYES OF SOVIET OFFICERS (ORAL STORIES) https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol70/volkov.pdf