Аннотации:
On May 9, 1945, the Great Patriotic War ended, and the Soviet administration began to demobilize.
This marked the beginning of a transition from war to a peaceful life. This thesis investigatesthis
process as experienced and remembered by the surviving World War II veterans in Kazakhstan.
The project aims to understand how men and women returning from the front tried to manage and
organize their lives in post-war conditions. I argue that veterans experienced a poorly organized
demobilization process, shortage of food and consumer goods, as well as housing issues, but their
post-war financial hardships were compensated by the sense of the veterans’ special mission in the
post-war Soviet society and access to free education and employment. In the work, I also explore
inter-ethnic relations between Kazakhs and Slavs and conclude that the relationship was generally
peaceful, although not withoutoccasional misunderstandings. Thus, the Slavs, especially Russians,
were highlighted as an “older brother” with the knowledge of the Russian language opening doors
to better educational and employment opportunities and the status of a “cultured person”. At the
same time, some Kazakh soldiers admitted to recognizing themselves as better people – more
humane and benevolent than their materialistic Russian peers. The basis of this work is veterans’
recollections, their perceptions of the period, and their lived experiences. To collect and analyze
veterans’ memories I chose to conduct in-depth interviews