“Short Narration” of Big War (Book Review: Vashkau, N. E. “...I’ll Write the Truth to You Just Once”. The Letters by Wehrmacht Soldiers from Stalingrad Besiegement. – Moscow : ROSSPEN Publ., 2013. – 135 p.)

• Main Author: OGARKOVA E.V.
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Volgograd State University 2014-06-01
• Series: Vestnik Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriâ 4. Istoriâ, Regionovedenie, Meždunarodnye Otnošeniâ
• Subjects: Stalingrad Battle; letters by Wehrmacht soldiers; source studies of World War II; historical memory; corpus of sources
• Online Access: http://hfrir.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/683
• ISSN: 1998-9938; 2312-8704

This publication is a review by historian and cultural specialist to the book “...I’ll write the truth to you just once”. The letters by Wehrmacht soldiers from Stalingrad besiegement by N.E. Vashkau. The review contains the analysis of professor Vashkau’s contribution to the study of primary sources regarding the Second World War. First of all, it is the first attempt of comprehensive publication of letters by German soldiers from the period of Stalingrad Battle from four collections in Moscow, Volgograd, and Stuttgart. Secondly, the book convincingly shows that it is impossible to understand the everyday history of the battle on Volga without studying the letters of German soldiers. Thirdly, the published letters confirm the double role of the Wehrmacht soldiers on the Eastern front: they played the role of both victims and criminals. The reviewer points out the influence of changes in individual and collective memory, as well as state political memory, on historians’ methods of working with private documents dated to the period of World War II.