Sochi Dialogue at non/fictio№: Reviving History and the Geography of Memory
From April 9 to 12, the international intellectual literature fair non/fictio№SPRING took place at Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor — a unique space where academic scholarship meets mass culture. This year, the Sochi Dialogue Forum, in partnership with the Kuchkovo Pole Muzeon publishing house, presented a program dedicated to preserving historical truth and exploring new approaches to memory politics.
The centerpiece of the Forum’s participation was the open discussion “From Stalingrad to Vienna: The Combat Path of the 4th Guards Army. The Geography of Memory Through the Lens of a Single Book.” The discussion was sparked by the presentation of a unique publication, which Daria Kozlova, Deputy Director of the Sochi Dialogue and moderator of the session, described as a “literary monument.”
The book was created by frontline soldiers in Vienna in 1945. Thanks to the initiative of Valery Bruntsev and the work of the publishing house, more than 600 archival illustrations and maps have been brought back into both academic and public circulation. These materials capture an authentic account of the army’s history, written by the veterans themselves, making the publication an invaluable source for understanding the heroic journey of the Soviet soldier from the banks of the Volga to the Austrian capital.
During the discussion, experts examined how the “geography of memory” is shaped in Russia and Europe, and how representations of the Great Patriotic War are conveyed today through modern communication channels. Sergey Belov, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University and a member of the gaming section of the Union of Writers of Russia, emphasized the role of media and popular culture in shaping historical perception. A key issue raised was the protection of historical truth from distortion, including in such a rapidly evolving field as video games.
Alongside digital formats, efforts to preserve historical memory are also being carried out on the theatrical stage. Anna Khlopova, Associate Professor at Moscow State Linguistic University, shared her experience of producing the plays “The Nuremberg Verdict” and “Voices of Victory,” based on extensive archival and psycholinguistic research.
Today, history is no longer perceived as a static set of facts from textbooks; it is becoming a lived experience and an ongoing dialogue between generations. We begin to “experience” the past through interactive video game scenarios, where player choices highlight the scale of historical events, and through immersive theatre, which blurs the line between the audience and the era itself.
This synthesis of classical scholarship and mass culture transforms the search for national identity into an engaging process, where preserving historical truth becomes key to understanding the future. For the Sochi Dialogue Forum, participation in the non/fictio№ fair once again underscored the importance of literature and the arts as powerful tools of public diplomacy.
