TY - JOUR
T1 - Military Farewells
T2 - The Legacies of the Soviet-Era Dembel’ Album
AU - Sarkisova, Oksana
AU - Shevchenko, Olga
AU - Gourieva, Maria
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2025/1
Y1 - 2025/1
N2 - This article explores the cultural and historical significance of Soviet dembel’ (demobilization) albums, which were created by soldiers in their final months of compulsory military service. These albums, emerging in the late Soviet period, served both as personal memorabilia and as a collective narrative of military identity. The authors examine the unique DIY aesthetic of these albums, which often featured a blend of photographs, hand-drawn images, and symbolic decorations. We argue that these visual artefacts manifest their makers’ loyalty to the official military ideology, and at the same time, acknowledge and normalize the otherwise invisible harsh realities of service, including subjugation and violence. Analysing the distinctive aesthetic and material aspects of these hand-made multimedia objects, as well as their increasingly digital afterlives, we demonstrate that Soviet dembel’ albums remain powerfully affective embodiments of shared experiences, transmitting the fusion of Soviet popular culture and its ideological cliches to the next generations.
AB - This article explores the cultural and historical significance of Soviet dembel’ (demobilization) albums, which were created by soldiers in their final months of compulsory military service. These albums, emerging in the late Soviet period, served both as personal memorabilia and as a collective narrative of military identity. The authors examine the unique DIY aesthetic of these albums, which often featured a blend of photographs, hand-drawn images, and symbolic decorations. We argue that these visual artefacts manifest their makers’ loyalty to the official military ideology, and at the same time, acknowledge and normalize the otherwise invisible harsh realities of service, including subjugation and violence. Analysing the distinctive aesthetic and material aspects of these hand-made multimedia objects, as well as their increasingly digital afterlives, we demonstrate that Soviet dembel’ albums remain powerfully affective embodiments of shared experiences, transmitting the fusion of Soviet popular culture and its ideological cliches to the next generations.
KW - late Soviet
KW - memory
KW - military service
KW - photo albums
KW - private photography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215411104&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17526272.2024.2449300
DO - 10.1080/17526272.2024.2449300
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85215411104
SN - 1752-6272
JO - Journal of War and Culture Studies
JF - Journal of War and Culture Studies
ER -