15. On Victims and Heroes: (Re)Assembling World War II Memory in the Border City of Narva

This chapter explores the urban memoryscape of the city of Narva, which lies on the border dividing Russia and the European Union (Estonia), and the Russian and Estonian national memory cultures. The chapter examines the distinctive forms of the Narvitian World War II memoryscape as a border hybrid memoryscape, shaped through constant dialogic relations with the space of memory and identity of Estonia, Russia, and Europe, but also preserving its own unique face, reflecting the specifics of Narva’s history and the ethnic and social composition of the city. The chapter discusses the complex interplay here between the images of “heroes” and “victims” as the central figures in the Russian and Estonian national memoryscapes. It considers examples of Aufarbeitung der Vergangen (working through the past) at the local level and demonstrate how multi-directional national narratives can be refracted, transformed, and reconciled in this highly specific border space of memory.