Vicky Davis received her PhD from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (UCL), and currently works as a freelance educational consultant and researcher. Davis has worked with a number of leading academics in her role as a researcher, including Roger Moorhouse on The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin (2014) and for Polly Jones (Associate Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Oxford) on several Soviet history projects. She has also published and presented in peer-reviewed journals, edited collections and at international conferences, and there is a section dedicated to her research on myth and war memory at the State Historical Museum in Novorossiisk, Russia.

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Myth of Malaia zemlia1.What is a War Myth?Part 1 War Correspondence and Memoirs: The Construction of the Myth through Literature372.A Myth is Born: War Correspondence from Malaia zemlia3.Early Memoir Literature4.Brezhnev's War Memoirs5.Beyond Brezhnev and BrezhnevismPart 2 Leonid Brezhnev: Local Legend or National Statesman?6.Brezhnev Comes to Town7.The Godfather8.The Making of a Modern Legend9.The State Comes to Town AgainPart 3 Respect for the Dead: Ritual and Monumental Remembrance10.Hats off to Heroes: The Beskozyrka Ritual11.Myth and Monuments: The Place of the Dead12.People on the PeripheryPart 4 Meetings of Generations: Teaching the Young to Remember13.Genes and Generations: Informal Transmission of Memory in the Family14.The Educational Role of Veterans15.Formal Education of the Younger GenerationConclusion: Looking Back to the FutureAppendix 1 Some Comments about NovorossiiskAppendix 2 Interviewing Subjects in NovorossiiskSelect Bibliography

Vicky Davis received her PhD from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (UCL), and currently works as a freelance educational consultant and researcher. Davis has worked with a number of leading academics in her role as a researcher, including Roger Moorhouse on The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin (2014) and for Polly Jones (Associate Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Oxford) on several Soviet history projects. She has also published and presented in peer-reviewed journals, edited collections and at international conferences, and there is a section dedicated to her research on myth and war memory at the State Historical Museum in Novorossiisk, Russia.

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Myth of Malaia zemlia1.What is a War Myth?Part 1 War Correspondence and Memoirs: The Construction of the Myth through Literature372.A Myth is Born: War Correspondence from Malaia zemlia3.Early Memoir Literature4.Brezhnev's War Memoirs5.Beyond Brezhnev and BrezhnevismPart 2 Leonid Brezhnev: Local Legend or National Statesman?6.Brezhnev Comes to Town7.The Godfather8.The Making of a Modern Legend9.The State Comes to Town AgainPart 3 Respect for the Dead: Ritual and Monumental Remembrance10.Hats off to Heroes: The Beskozyrka Ritual11.Myth and Monuments: The Place of the Dead12.People on the PeripheryPart 4 Meetings of Generations: Teaching the Young to Remember13.Genes and Generations: Informal Transmission of Memory in the Family14.The Educational Role of Veterans15.Formal Education of the Younger GenerationConclusion: Looking Back to the FutureAppendix 1 Some Comments about NovorossiiskAppendix 2 Interviewing Subjects in NovorossiiskSelect Bibliography

Vicky Davis received her PhD from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (UCL), and currently works as a freelance educational consultant and researcher. Davis has worked with a number of leading academics in her role as a researcher, including Roger Moorhouse on The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin (2014) and for Polly Jones (Associate Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Oxford) on several Soviet history projects. She has also published and presented in peer-reviewed journals, edited collections and at international conferences, and there is a section dedicated to her research on myth and war memory at the State Historical Museum in Novorossiisk, Russia.

• PrefaceList of IllustrationsIntroduction: The Myth of Malaia zemlia1.What is a War Myth?Part 1 War Correspondence and Memoirs: The Construction of the Myth through Literature372.A Myth is Born: War Correspondence from Malaia zemlia3.Early Memoir Literature4.Brezhnev's War Memoirs5.Beyond Brezhnev and BrezhnevismPart 2 Leonid Brezhnev: Local Legend or National Statesman?6.Brezhnev Comes to Town7.The Godfather8.The Making of a Modern Legend9.The State Comes to Town AgainPart 3 Respect for the Dead: Ritual and Monumental Remembrance10.Hats off to Heroes: The Beskozyrka Ritual11.Myth and Monuments: The Place of the Dead12.People on the PeripheryPart 4 Meetings of Generations: Teaching the Young to Remember13.Genes and Generations: Informal Transmission of Memory in the Family14.The Educational Role of Veterans15.Formal Education of the Younger GenerationConclusion: Looking Back to the FutureAppendix 1 Some Comments about NovorossiiskAppendix 2 Interviewing Subjects in NovorossiiskSelect Bibliography