The River of Life and Death: The Dnipro Landscapes in World War II

• In Event: War Landscapes: Society and Environment During/After Military Conflicts

Abstract

The territory of Ukraine often became the battlefield. In these battles the river Dnipro became some kind of rubicon. One of the most famous was the battle on the Dnipro in 1943. The largest number of WWII combatants died there after the Volga. For the warriors the Dnipro became a symbol of inevitable losses. Later marking the territory with the help of different memorials on the Dnipro banks became the significant part of post-war memory policy. The paper focuses on the role of the Dnipro landscapes during the tragic events of WWII and in the social memory of descendants.

Author

• Serhii Bilivnenko, Zaporizhzhia National U (Ukraine)