Abstract
Olga Sevastidou
University of Thessaly
Communities of memory and oblivion: the construction of memory in life story narratives of Pontic Greeks about the persecutions and deportations of the Stalinist era in the USSR (1937-1949)
The paper analyzes the formation of communities of memory and oblivion among the Pontic Greeks of the former Soviet Union. Members of this community who lived through the deportations of the Stalinist era migrated to Greece, either before WWII or after 1990. I will explore how these populations remember and interpret their experiences of persecution during the 1930s and 1940s, their migration to Greece and their political affiliation after their arrival in Greece. I will focus in particular on their memories of deportation in a post – communist context. How did a narrative about the past become a comment on the present and how do experiences in the present contribute to the idealization of the past? Who remembers, when and why? And who prefers to forget?
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