Esther Meier,
Dr., German Historical Institute Moscow, Scientific coordinator of the project “Soviet and German Prisoners of War and Internees”, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Resistance of the Volga Tatar Prisoners of War in World War II: Heroes in the Transformation of Remembrance
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-3-14
The resistance of the Volga Tatar prisoners of war during World War II has achieved a certain recognition due to the great popularity of one of its central actors, Musa Dzhalil. The Tatar poet Dzhalil was captured by the Germans in 1942, and joined the “Idel-Ural” legion of the Wehrmacht, but he became a co-organiser of a resistance group and was executed together with ten other Tatars in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1944. The article shows how the image of Dzhalil in the Soviet Union underwent a transformation from traitor to resistance fighter. In the Brezhnev era, the only large scale state monument to a Soviet prisoner of war was erected in the city of Kazan. The party leadership and other regional actors of the TASSR succeeded in establishing a Tatar, a former prisoner of war and a legionnaire, as a hero of the “Great Patriotic War” on both the pan-Soviet and international levels. The figure provides significant input for research and public debate to reconsider rigid narratives about resistance and collaboration, heroes and traitors.
Publishing: 28/06/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 06.04.2021
How to cite: Meier E. The Resistance of the Volga Tatar Prisoners of War in World War II: Heroes in the Transformation of Remembrance // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 3 (17), pp. 127–134. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-3-14.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2021
Keywords: Volga Tatars; prisoners of war; resistance; collaboration; “Idel-Ural” legion; culture of remembrance; monuments; Musa Dzhalil; TASSR