Russian Letters from the Front: Egodocuments and Witnesses of Time

Abstract

This article studies letters written by Russians from the front in various wars of the twentieth century. The letter from the front is an intimate egodocument; it speaks about the attitude of a combatant in the context of the front and its circumstances while, at the same time, providing a reflection of the discursive regime of the era that defined and shaped the dominant modes of written communication of the author. A socially oriented narrative analysis of letters from the front allows us to outline the professional attitude to war, the evolution of military professionalism, military ethos and public discourse about it.

Keywords

• letters from the front
• military professionalism
• military work
• narrative
• symbolic meaning of the war