2 - Patriotic Solidarity in the First Flush of Defeat

Summary

The myth of a patriotic closing of the ranks in shared resistance to foreign oppressors was central to the shaping of public memory of the war in much of formerly occupied parts of post-war Eurasia. The fact that significant cross-sections of societies – and not just handfuls of opportunistic “traitors” – may have accommodated, or even collaborated with, Axis occupiers to one degree or another was commonly swept under the carpet in the aftermath of the purge trials that followed liberation. It was only in later decades, if at all, that national historiographies began to contend systematically with the much more complicated historical realities and the uncomfortable moral and political ambiguities they presented.¹